Beauty

Psalm 104, I Peter 1:1-9, Revelation 21

Dear God,

Help me to embrace the serendipity of beauty that surrounds me. So often, I find myself obsessed by going from point A to point B, that I miss the obvious beauty which is just in front of me.  The beauty that You have positioned in my path is Your special gift.  All too often, I rush right on by without bothering to study the package, the paper, or the bow.  In my rush, I fail to take time to notice, to open Your gift of beauty to me.  Slow me down that I may savor Your serendipitous gift with wonder.

My task-oriented nature is such that I define myself by doing. I hear Your sweet and tender call just to be in Your Presence. You call me to enjoy the beauty of You, the splendor of Your character, the beauty of Your creation, and the beauty of Your image imprinted upon Your creative crowning glory, humanity.  Help me to notice.

Thank You for Your beauty which surrounds me. The natural beauty of the lake, a stream, a large buck prancing out of the forest and into a meadow. Thank you for the beauty of mountains, trees–each one unique.  A bird on the wing, a gleaming fish breaking a glassy surface, a dragonfly buzzing, a woodpecker’s flash of color and eruption of clatter. Thank you.

Thank You for the miraculous beauty of childbirth.  An infant’s soft skin, a child's unrestrained laughter, happy smiles, a loving kiss, busy play, an unrestrained hug.  Thank You for the beauty of Youth, vigorous, muscular, and attractive. Thank You for the beauty of character in a life well-lived.  Thank You for the one who shuffles forward, shoulders bent, whose heart and mind is filled with a wisdom that has shed the trivial and focused on the eternal.  Thank You for an aged face, mapped with living, that points with anticipation to an eternal destiny.  Thank You for people who show me the path of the well-lived life and inspire me to do the same.

Thank You for the breeze in my face, the breath in my lungs, and Your indwelling Holy Spirit. I have set my sail toward the wind.  Fill me, propel me, define me. Help me not to miss the gift of beauty which you place right in front of me every day. Prepare me to see the beauty in Your face and in all that You have prepared for us in heaven at last.  I never want to insult You, the Giver, by missing Your gift of beauty. Thank you.  I accept Your gift.

In the Name of my Creator and Lord, the Author of Beauty,
Amen.