Finding His Beauty

I have a single gerber daisy sitting on my bedside table and I'm absolutely captivated by it.  It may just be one of the dozen I picked up from Safeway for $4.99 while I was grocery shopping, but to me, it represents God's beauty, and I am head over heels in love with it.
 
Have you ever stared at a flower for a few minutes?  Call me weird, but that's exactly what I've been doing every morning when I wake up.  I stare at the daisy and praise God, enthralled by its beauty.  I know it's just one of millions, but God took special care to create that daisy, an intricate and delicate masterpiece showcasing His creativity.

I confess these days I rarely take the time to seek out beauty in the world.   In college I used to walk around campus and thank God that I lived in the most amazing place in the world.  When I visit home, I do the same thing.  I can see God in the architecture of Princeton buildings, in Prospect garden, in the bayou that winds its way behind my house, and in cyprus trees whose limbs bend beneath Spanish moss.  His creation is awe-inspiring!  Yet in the city, too often I hurriedly power walk to work in the morning, down city blocks with tall buildings and no nature whatsoever.  By the time I walk home after work, the streets are dark and all I care about is getting in from the cold.   I'm too utterly consumed with my own thoughts and desires to even look around.  And yet, God's glorious creation stretches out around me, if only I would open my eyes.  The sky and the sun, the parks and the people- God has created all of them.  I must only open my eyes to see the hand of our Lord.

I challenge you today to seek God's beauty everywhere you go.  And imagine, if He has created such beauty in a fallen world, how much more beautiful Heaven will be!

Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man's behalf!  

-Psalm 66:5