Seeing beauty

I was reading a new book this morning called The 7 Hardest Things God asks a Woman to Do by Kathie Reimer and Lisa Whittle. I've been reading Let Go by Sheila Walsh and haven't finished it, but it was in my girls room this morning and they were asleep when it was time for me to do my devotions =)

Anyways, there was a short snippet that I particularly enjoyed because it is something I feel strongly about. One of the authors shares a story about driving through the industrial part of town that's pretty run down. In the midst of this, her mother (very old at the time) remarks about a beautiful tree that she sees in the midst of the junkyard. The older woman was right--it was indeed beautiful amidst everything around it.

The story made me think about whether or not I see God's beauty and his blessings and hope amidst the things that can make me feel like everything is yucky. I try to focus on these things and not get mired down in the yuckiness. I particularly liked how the author said it this way about her mom, "That one sentence (the comment about the tree) expressed the heart of who she was and always had been: a lovely lady who lived each day in the constant awareness of the Lord's presence and his magnificent handiwork all around her. Sometimes we need to focus on Jesus because of the stormy, threatening, frightening times we face. At other times we need our eyes to be fixed on the beauty of Jesus because of all the debris in our lives, all the junk, all the "Stuff" that commands our attention."

I thought those were wise words. =)