Beautiful Things.

Today I found myself again wanting to capture beauty with the little camera on my phone. As I was driving to Palos Verdes to have enchiladas with Andrew {they were DELICIOUS, btw} the sun began to set and I thought of how beautiful it probably looked over another really great thing I get to enjoy in the northwest – the PACIFIC OCEAN. I drove as fast as my little car {and the speed limit} would allow, only to discover that by the time I got to a place where I could see the ocean, the ocean was just a black abyss and the sunset was reduced to a little pinkish line on the horizon. Oh so sad.

I walked two kids to the park, a cute little park you would never stumble upon if you didn’t know to look for it. We went to this park on Sunday, as well. As we walked back I again noticed this one tree. I took this picture on Sunday and realized how magnificent it really is. It reminds me of fire. and I love that it is right next to a tree that has already burned out.



So here’s what I’m thinking. Perhaps this world is full of more beautiful things than we can ever imagine, and we’re so desensitized to them that we don’t notice them.

I dare you us to be more deliberate about documenting these beautiful things. Today I was writing a letter to someone and asked them a series of questions – how is your job, how is your girlfriend, how is life, how are things with the Lord? and I then noted that I should have asked the questions in reverse order, because how things are with the Lord sets the tone for everything else. I’m no really holy person but I’ve been trying to acknowledge the Lord as soon after I wake up as I can, and it changes everything like how breakfast changes things. and today in that letter I was writing about the Israelites and their manna and how we “sleep things off,” including some of our faith, I think. I was writing also about the Israelites and manna and it seems like the Israelites kept forgetting about God’s goodness. and Moses – and God himself – kept telling them to REMEMBER THE LORD, WHO BROUGHT YOU OUT OF EGYPT WITH A MIGHTY HAND AND AN OUTSTRETCHED ARM {I sing that every time. Thank you Michael W. Smith}. They just kept forgetting.

I started wondering if maybe God gave the Israelites manna every morning to remind them. You know, to make them have to remember. Every day they were faced with God’s goodness and grace and mercy and promises. They slept off some of their faith, but when they ate manna they remembered. and Jesus, when he prayed. Give us this day our daily bread. Just today. My most common prayer these days – I say it often, but with a passionate heart – is “Lord Jesus, give me strength for today. Not for tomorrow; we’ll worry about that when it comes.” Plus, I’ll sleep off part of that strength and need it refreshed.

I’m going to be more deliberate about documenting the beauty around me as I see it, so that I can always remember. You should, too. and then share it so I can see too 🙂