As I was driving yesterday, from my home to the next town over, I was overcome with the beauty of the scenery. I wish I had stopped and captured it for you, but my description will have to do. It was a long, straight stretch of highway. On either side were fields of crops, dark green, in their summer glory. The sky was a brilliant blue dotted all about with perfect, white, puffy clouds. The scene stretched out before me was glorious and made me thankful to live in the Midwest.
This after a summer of less than ideal Midwest weather. Maybe that is why it was such a beautiful, perfect day. Or maybe, after studying about God that morning, He had given me new eyes to see it as He did.
In that moment, as my ordinary Midwest town was transformed into a site as beautiful as any I had seen, I realized that beauty has no bounds, it comes in all different varieties. I have been blessed to be able to travel all over the U.S. and some abroad. This world has many amazing places. But I have been just as in awe of the barren Badlands, as I have the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean, or the majestic Rocky Mountains.
You see, that morning I had been reading about the two sons and the Father in Henri Nouwen's book, The Return of the Prodigal. The younger son had wandered away, while the older stayed home. The Father celebrated the return of the younger son! The older son was not too happy about that, but he too was invited into the Father's joy. In fact, all the Father had was available to the older son, it always had been.
We live in this earthly land of comparison, always labeling one thing better than another, or striving to get what we think we deserve, and we project that on God...but that is not God. He loves perfectly with a divine love that allows for uniqueness without comparison. His love rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things...His love never fails! (1 Corinthians 13) With God, His love and joy in one does not take away from another; all are deeply loved; all can come to be forgiven. His love is a transforming love that makes all things new, brings beauty from ashes, and turns mourning into dancing.
So, wherever you find yourself to be, may you find yourself enveloped in God's amazing love and the unique beauty that surrounds you!
