I have been blessed to see the beauty of this planet…
There are many beautiful, busy and solitary places I’ve traveled in my life. The beautiful, alongside that which lack much beauty in my eye, lie side by side. What is one man’s beauty is another’s ugly. Some love the desert, others the mountains, while others want to be surrounded by water. Some find beauty in the crowds of a city. Others find it down a lonely trail in the wilderness. Some like the noise and bustle, others want the quiet and the rustle. Some like it hot. Some not. Some want people, others want solitude.
While it is true I can enjoy the beauty of a craftily designed portrait of a city skyline showing man’s ingenuity and ability to build, there is something more enjoyable when I pause alongside a babbling brook just as the ice is beginning to form in calm corners.
This morning, while walking back to the house after depositing the garbage and recycle can’s for pickup, the sky was an amazing view of mystery. To the east, the dawn was lighting with faint shades of blue as the new day begins to form. In the clouds, a break showed stars beginning to fade, while the moon is haloed with the wispy and frosty layer of a cool, wet morning. The snow and ice has abated. More rain and storms loom. But in that quick moment I realized exactly how beautiful the morning was. And the hope that is brings.
I imagine the shepherd boy watching over his flock day and night. In the cool of the desert he watches the majesty of the universe unfold in the night skies. The mystery of night. The flickering lights of stars and planets. And not even understanding what is in his purview. Why is it so dark? What is out there? I even wonder if he comprehended the great distances and time it takes for the light to appear from the flickers.
He utters the phrase:
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? (Psalms 8:3-4 NKJV)
One can’t help but give honor to the Creator. And feel an awesome smallness in the middle of it all. There are times we alone feel the weight of our moments of trial, but the greatness of the universe and the unknown gives me pause to say that there is so much more that we do not yet understand. So much more to explore. So much more to enjoy.
Thank you Lord for the day that gives me pause, and a view, to give proper thanks.