Behold the Beauty!

I was sitting on my backyard swing soaking up some morning sun recently, and a little black and white moth landed on the armrest of my swing. He was a lovely, furry little thing--he almost appeared to have feathers--glossy and soft. I remembered a butterfly I had seen earlier in the butterfly garden at school. This fellow was mostly orange on top, but when he settled on a flower and folded his wings, silvery spots on the underside of his wings glittered in the sun. Such amazing detail!

I have a relative who takes these incredible nature pictures. He has all sorts of expensive lenses, and the shots he gets are truly stunning! I especially love his photographs of bugs. Sometimes the tiny critters that appear to be black or brown, when seen up close, actually have incredible blue streaks or green and purple spots. There is a lot of hidden beauty in the world.

How many people get close enough or slow down enough to see all this creativity and beauty? Does God worry that his work is wasted or that no one will notice? Certainly not, but I see in these details a God who loves beauty for its own sake, who is himself so truly beautiful that everything he touches--and that's everything--is rich with color and patterns.

David's prayer as recorded in Psalm 27 was "to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to meditate in his temple." Zion is frequently described as a city of great beauty. Just read Revelation 21 to see how much God values color and brilliance.

Until I get to heaven and see the glory for myself, I'm going to keep looking for the shiny and gorgeous previews God has put all around me--even on little bugs!

--Sherry Poff