God speaks to us in the beauty of the world He's put us in, with changing seasons, with the complexity of leaves and flowers and creatures of the animal world. It's easier, it sometimes seems, to feel close to God in the woods, in the country, in the quiet and the stillness. But God is in the urban settings too. He's seen in people's efforts to create a home for themselves, to be civilized, to conquer the wildness. But we cannot conquer the sadness, the pain, the wrong, that rages within. Not without the work of the Divine. We bear testimony to our need of Him in our desperate attempts to make our own beauty.
I want to find His beauty. I want to be caught up in it. I see it more in the people who inhabit the world He's created. In them, more than any other work of His, I see His greatness, the handiwork of love, compassion, hope.
In the variance of features, in the brilliance of blue eyes, the depth of dark ones, in the lined cheek, in the smooth, rosy one, in these I see the love of God. God so loves the world. The people of the world.
I marvel at the small, sweet hand of my youngest child. She is not a product of chance. She is not without a reason for being. She is full of promise because the precious, perfect One died that she and I and you might know everlasting life and fullness of joy. Today and forever.