Beauty Everywhere

It's a beautiful day here in Niagara: the sky is clear, the sun is shining, the trees are wearing their autumn colors.  I hear the blue jays at the feeder, and the squirrels have been busy.  Observing the day's beauty, I feel my stress drain away. 

What beauty do you see as you look around?  It may be that you look upon a busy city street with people hurrying to complete their tasks.  You may be surrounded by fields in the midst of their final harvest.  You may even be looking out upon snowy vistas, as a friend shared yesterday.

My father was a photographer.  As a young child, I enjoyed looking through the photos he had taken for his course.  Many were industrial shots that puzzled me.  "Can't you see the beauty?" he asked.  "Look at them!  See the lines of the pipes?  Look how this section is dark, while this area is filled with light."  Patiently, he showed me what appealed to him in the scenes.  He taught me that there is always something beautiful to see if you only look for it.

I was reminded of that when I saw a photograph of an ordinary garage-floor oil slick recently.  The photographer had captured the play of colors in the oil against the pale concrete, seeing beauty where many of us (myself included!) would simply have seen something needing to be cleaned. 

If we take the time, we will discover much beauty to appreciate and, in that appreciation, we will find our hearts uplifted and our worries eased.  Often, though, we do not grant ourselves even that momentary respite from our tasks and concerns.  It may seem like a waste of time or an exercise in selfishness. 


You may recall having set an especially nice table or done something nice to surprise a loved one.  If your loved one failed to notice it or, even worse, glanced at it and dismissed it, you know how hurtful such disappointment is. 

God has set before us not a beautiful table but a beautiful world.  How sad if we fail to notice it or dismiss it as 'just another autumn day.'  I'm not suggesting that our failure to appreciate the world is hurtful to God at all, but why don't we ever considered that taking time to appreciate the world around us may be not only helpful and relaxing but also holy?

Enjoying the beauty God offers is an opportunity to gift God with our loving appreciation for the blessings around us.  What could be holier?