Beauty

The last few days have been clear and cold, which can provoke a number of responses.  On one hand, sub-freezing temperatures are a pain.  Pipes and hoses freeze, hence, water must be hauled for the animals, hands ache and then go numb, and people hit black ice and drive through fences.  But there's definitely a bright side -- literally.

I can't think of anything that can transform a landscape quite like a heavy frost.  Every humble dead leaf and common mud puddle suddenly becomes a shimmering work of art.  This is what I've been noticing with this cold snap, and it's glorious!  As I do chores around 8:10 a.m., I get to witness the few short minutes of "the golden hour" of sunrise, when the angle is just right to make the whole scene glow and sparkle with an unmatched radiance.  Words can't describe it, film can't do it justice, but I long to share it, because in these moments, I feel, "This is what I was made for."

This is what we were made for.  Our world was intended to reflect the beauty of its Creator, and if we look close enough, beauty is truly found everywhere in nature.  But some moments, some corners of this earth are unquestionably more beautiful than others.  They are the ones that remind us of the world we created for, and keep us seeking to know our beautiful God more and more.  Thank God for frost, icy puddles, stunning sunrises, towering trees, mountaintop views, coastal forests, upward trails, deer ferns, clear rivers . . . and the home He's preparing for us that all these are only a peek at!

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."  ~C. S. Lewis