Mar
22
2022
Picking Beauty
Posted in Worship 2 Comments
It was an afternoon of errands.
I deliberately drove home a different way.
A slower way.
A more scenic way.
It had been a week of cold temperatures with a snowfall trying to make its last hurrah.
I remember reading about “sugar snow” as described by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Sugar snow is a late snow that falls when it really should be spring.
That late snowfall helps the trees make more sap for maple syrup.
The snow had melted and this day of running errands was a gorgeous, springlike day.
Spring was still officially a week away.
I saw a tinge of green on the trees as I drove along.
Daffodils and crocuses were making themselves known on many lawns.
As I was driving up a hill, I was enjoying the bit of spring colors I was seeing all around me.
I saw a burst of yellow up ahead.
I knew that burst of yellow belonged to a patch of daffodils.
It was then I saw her.
A young girl was bending down, almost dance-like in her movements.
It was not a ballet position she was doing.
Rather, she looked like a golfer leaning down to retrieve a golf ball.
One hand was touching the ground while one foot was in the air behind her.
I approached slowly, since her movement near this burst of yellow intrigued me.
She was not retrieving, rather she was taking.
Her graceful movements were purposeful.
This young girl wanted to pick a daffodil.
As she bent down with her foot in the air behind her, she looked around.
Apparently, these were not her daffodils.
Their beauty captivated her.
She had to have one, only one, for her very own.
I wanted to pull over and watch her as she picked a daffodil, but I drove on towards home.
Beauty was there in front of her.
This beauty blessed everyone who took the time to look.
The burst of yellow, that was this patch of daffodils, was hard to miss.
Perhaps the late snowfall coaxed the daffodils out of hiding.
Rather than more sap, this snow coaxed the daffodils to burst forth in beauty.
The whole scene made me smile.
The little girl, with the graceful movements, was picking beauty.
Beauty catches you unaware.
Its sheer presence catches you off guard.
When beauty is in front of you, you simply have to respond.
The young girl was simply picking beauty.
I said those words to myself as I drove home.
Picking beauty.
How I wanted to do that as gracefully as the young girl I saw among the daffodils.
How I wanted to be caught off guard by something that takes my breath away.
When I thought about that on my drive home, I came to a conclusion.
Beauty is all around me.
If I miss it, that is on me.
If I fail to see the beauty God puts in front of me, it is no one’s fault but my own.
Beauty is there for the taking.
We have to slow down enough to see it.
We must be ready to be captivated by it.
We have to pick beauty when we are confronted by it.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
God set eternity in our hearts.
We have the knowledge of beauty in our hearts as well.
True beauty goes far beyond physical attributes.
True beauty is the image of God that He imprinted in each one of us.
We walked always in beauty, it seemed to me. We walked and looked about, or stood and looked. Sometimes, less often, we would sit down. We did not often speak. The place spoke for us and was a kind of speech. We spoke to each other in the things we saw. (Wendell Berry)
In his book, Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry easily agrees with the young girl.
In the silence and the solitude, beauty is there for the taking.
No words are necessary.
Silence in the presence of beauty is key.
Get ready.
Beauty is about to burst forth.
Sit down and savor it.
Bend down with graceful movements and pick beauty.
Thank God for His good gifts.
Love this.
I am so glad, Sherie.
It was a special thing to witness.
Gina