How many times do you aimlessly walk through creation without reflecting on His majestic creativity? How many times do you look at a tree and think it's just another tree, without marveling at it's strength and detail? How many times do you choose not to find the shapes in the clouds or see the faces in the tree bark, because you think that kind of creativity is merely for children who are too imaginative and not realistic? How many times do you pass up the invitation to truly live and marvel at life, only to aimlessly walk through a beautiful and wildly creative world, blinded and focused on the ground?
Do you ever sit and day dream about God creating the beauty around you? I love asking people this and hearing the different perspectives. Some of my more analytical friends see God as an analytical creator who put time and effort into his majestic creation as He thought about each segment and how it would react with the rest of the world. When I think about Him creating things, I think about a creator who is giddy with excitement as He gets to be creative. I imagine Him with big eyes, picking out a color, texture, and scent for His creation. Then, I see Him squealing with excitement as He gets to choose each detail. I love that we reflect the image of God and get to see Him in different perspectives.
Will you accept the invitation to sit in awe of the little things? We live in a culture that tells us we must travel to another place, one that is beautiful and different, in order to see God's beauty. Yes, His beauty is found in those places, but we are so quick to put a blindfold on wherever we are.
Have you ever thought about the fact that the Lord delights in bringing us joy? Did you know that He created us to seek joy? The sad thing is, we often seek for the joy that only He can bring through other means.
How often do you see a shape in a cloud and point it out and move on, never thinking about it again? I would dare to say that He takes great joy in creating the clouds each day and takes joy in creating shapes out of them! Sometimes, I think He knows exactly who will take the time to look up, and creates a shape that will bring us joy and even laughter. If you don't believe we serve a God of child-like imagination, open your eyes and look around. Take time to look at the shapes in the clouds...they aren't by accident. I only wish I could sit by my king every day and watch His joy and laughter as He decides what kind of crazy imaginative shapes He can make in the clouds.
This is something the Lord has been challenging me with lately. I was first challenged to change my purpose behind my instagram account. It's so easy to use it for the wrong things, whether that's posting things for the likes, or the thought that if you don't post a picture, it didn't happen, or thinking that if you don't post a picture from an event that everyone and their mom posted, that you must not be a good friend. These are silly things that so quickly entangle us. Am I saying Instagram is some terrible thing that we should get rid of? Absolutely not, but I do think it was necessary for me, personally, to re-purpose my account. I was challenged to use it to capture seemingly monotonous things that we quickly do not recognize as beautiful. I am so quick to pass up the invitation to see the simple beauty in life and marvel at it. I am so quick to pass up the invitation to have a child-like faith and see God's humor and creativity in creation.
The other day, I went hiking with a friend and we felt challenged to use it to simply take joy in the creation around us and to not quickly pass by aimlessly. This was such a life-giving experience as we saw the detail in the trails, including ombre leaves (He did it before it was cool...no big deal...), fields of flowers, detailed tree bark, massive trees, trees that had grown together to form a long tunnel to walk under, shiny shells by the lake, a clear and distinct
path, and my favorite- a face in tree bark. We saw the tree bark and stopped and stared at it, laughing and trying to make the face we saw. We kept walking, and had to go back to see it again and take pictures. We began talking about it and discussing how there's no way anyone had ever seen it and paid attention to it and how most likely the Lord made that face in the bark just for us, knowing that in years we would be walking that path, our eyes ready to see His beauty, and laugh at His sense of humor. That's what I love about my Jesus- not only does He care about the big things in life, but He takes the time to create faces in trees and shapes in clouds, because He's simply hilarious, imaginative, and joyful. All we had to do was open our eyes and be ready to receive joy abundantly. Are you ready to marvel at His beauty all around you with hands open, ready to receive that joy abundantly?