October 2024 | Finding Beauty in all Things

Finding beauty in all things

In our family its well known that I love the Autumn season. In my opinion, the cooler temperatures, Indian corn, pumpkins, mums, and painted leaves all make for a season that is a feast for the senses. Our creative God has a way of making things of beauty everywhere we look, although sometimes its hidden or rolled together with things that may not be our favorites. Spiders, for example, are not my favorite critters, mainly because I’m allergic to their bites, and yet this past week when I went into the garden, I saw a web with dewdrops glistening like small jewels along each strand with a delicate glory that would have befitted a queen’s necklace. Beauty rolled together with something that many of us would not consider as “beautiful”, a spiders home.

As we traveled this past week, I couldn't help but notice those large stands of Goldenrod we see  alongside the road. The plant may make many of us sneeze and cause sinuses to be stuffed up, and yet when you look at the flowers      themselves, they are quite lovely with their golden earth tone color and small individual blooms. The beauty is there, we just sometimes have a hard time seeing beyond the negative.

Hidden beauty is something we know about, but seldom take the time to    explore. The biologist in me has      always been amazed by the fact that those beautiful fall leaves only show their true colors when the            chlorophyll that causes the green appearance fades. When the leaves produce less chlorophyll at the end of summer, the green color is replaced leaving the bright orange, red, yellow and soft browns that appear. They were there all the time just waiting to be seen… simply hidden.

Sometimes we look at others and do not see the beauty within even though we are all made in God’s image. As a result, we miss their hidden beauty. An anonymous writer once said, “People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out. But in the darkness, beauty is seen only if there is a light within.” Each of us have light within, a beauty within, sometimes it’s simply harder to see than at other times. We need to look for the light within that gives sparkle and shine.

Romans 8:19, “All creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.”
Happy Fall Everyone!
 
In Gentleness and Peace, Pastor Sue Hadley