This morning my devotion turned out to be looking out the window. I was supposed to read something, but this was all I got to. It was all I really needed. There was a fresh layer of maybe two inches on the ground, which seemed a dusting after the 30″ we got last week. It made everything look stunningly clean and soft. The branches of the trees glowed and had a crystalline look about them. I stood and looked for a long time, something of awe, praise, heart-aching wonder welling up inside.
Honestly, I kind of hate to admit how beautiful I found it. I’ve fairly firmly established among anyone that knows me that I don’t like the cold and snow. I’d rather have it in the mid-70s any day of the week and, really, the hotter the better as far as I’m concerned— 90°F is pretty comfortable to me.
But, I guess the truth of it is there is beauty in all creation … even when it isn’t comfortable.
Hmm. You know, that seems broadly applicable to life: “There is beauty, even when it isn’t comfortable.”
I guess that’s kind of what Lent is about, isn’t it: it is supposed to be about stripping away all the stuff so that we are left with bare branches, bare ground, ashes, dust, a cross, the wilderness. And in the middle of that uncomfortable place, that stripped place, we are invited into the beauty—of God, of creation, of our own rent hearts.
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Featured Image by Steven Severinghaus “This photo was taken on December 27, 2011 in Lake of the Woods, Illinois, US, using a Nikon D300.” Found on his Flickr acct. Check out this and his other work at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/horsepunchkid/
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