Into the Fire

Although one can never fully separate the spiritual from the physical, the following sample of things I think are beautiful will address the physical realm first: most Thoroughbred race horses, sunsets, sunrises, forests, green pastures, some huge houses (old or new), some cars/trucks, Mt. Rainier, tropical and rugged ocean beaches, old working farms, some waterfalls, some clothes/shoes, pine, knotty pine, and lighter-colored woods.

Some smells I think are beautiful: alfalfa, cinnamon, freshly mowed green grass, Estee Lauder’s Beautiful and Pleasures, horses, coffee (even though I don’t drink it), some restaurants, an ocean breeze, some flowers.

The spiritual side of beautiful is the Creator of all things beautiful.

Seeing people worship God with their whole hearts, without reserve, without caution, without limits, is beautiful. When the purity of immersion in the Presence of God is beyond all else, the only valuable and important thing at the time, it’s absolutely stunning. Lovely.

To read a novel where that loveliness shines through the words, that devotion to the Savior is distributed in an ordained array of subtle or obvious expression, crafted with diligence, and written with the heart of God’s love, direction, or leading exposed on the pages . . . well, that is just plain beautiful.

God Almighty, Creator of all things beautiful (He has made all things beautiful in His time. Ecclesiastes 3:11), I honor you and thank you for the beauty that remains on this tainted earth. You are generous to us, an undeserving people. You have made beauty from ashes in my life many times over. You are beautiful. Thank you. Please help me to keep my focus on your beauty and when my head is right, allow me the joys of transcribing that beauty to the page. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.