“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful for beauty is God’s handwriting.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
I was walking the dogs one morning when I noticed something sparkling out of the corner of my eye. Sap had collected in drops overnight, hanging from the pine needles like sparkling crystals. Hundreds of them. Refracting the morning light in such a way that a rainbow arched in each one.
I stood under that pine tree marveling like a kid on Christmas morning. Considering a God who creates such magnificence in such small things. Even the tip of a pine needle conveys the wonder and beauty of God’s creation!
God hides these doorways of transcendence in such unlikely places. Invites us to step through them and encounter a bigger world. A grander reality waiting to be discovered.
I believe it was Fr. Richard Rohrer who said that God creates beauty so that someone will delight in it. In order that God may delight with us, in us and through us.
So, this week, I’d like to pose a challenge. Where do you find beauty?
Be intentional in searching it out. It’s there to be found. When you find it, get out your phone, take a picture and send it to pastor@trinitynewholland.org We will post the pictures in our newsletter and on our Facebook page.
Let’s lift up the beauty around us. Let’s remind each other of the God “in whom we live and move and have our being.”
Even in the midst of a pandemic, there is beauty to be found. Even in the growing authoritarian political darkness being unleashed in our cities, God is present.
In fact, it is the beauty of God, hidden all around us, that gives us the courage and the strength to proclaim the deeper truth of God to the darkness and injustice that wants nothing more than to drown it out.
The beauty of God, hidden all around us, gives us the courage and the strength to proclaim the deeper truth of God to the darkness and injustice that wants nothing more than to drown it out.
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So, here’s my contribution:
Last Sunday morning, I took my coffee outside to enjoy the morning coolness, knowing that a stifling hot day was forecast. Sunday mornings are my time to listen to the stillness of a world asleep and held by God, before leading worship. Praying, if that’s the right word for enjoying some coffee and quiet and hoping that God will speak through me and bring life and healing and keep me from getting in the way.
I heard a hissing behind the trees. I watched as a balloon slowly rose in the clear dawn sky and drifted over the yard. If beauty is God’s handwriting, God was sending me a postcard. Special delivery. Written in big, bold, letters!
Sometimes God is subtle, revealed in small things, and sometimes God is just a show off, as Anne Lamott says.
Or, to put it another way:
“Beauty saves. Beauty heals. Beauty motivates. Beauty unites. Beauty returns us to our origins, and here lies the ultimate act of saving, of healing, of overcoming dualism. Beauty allows us to forget the pain and dwell on the joy.” —Matthew Fox
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Send your original photos of discovered beauty to pastor@trinitynewholland.org
Charles Oberkehr 