Enjoy the Scenery

Isn't there something so special and stimulating about "new"?  I remember our first fall in Mississippi. Florida isn't exactly  known for it's splendor of changing foliage, so September in Mississippi took my breath away. Those were the days I was working and spending most of my working days driving winding, backwoods country roads. There was a certain day that the beauty of the purples, gold, and reds captured my senses. I've always been weird. I prefer wildflowers to expensive bouquets of flowers and almost got Josh arrested becuase of it. He was going to pick me wildflowers off the side of Tyndall Parkway when we were in high school, but somehow he was informed that it is illegal to do so. So, he paid lots of money to buy some wildflowers from a florist and covered my car in them while I was at work one night. *Sigh*..........

Anyway, back to that day in Mississippi. It reminded me of a time when I was younger that my Papaw had taken me down some backwoods country roads in Mississippi and pulled his big ol' truck to the side of the road and picked me some flowers, right there off the side of the road. Maybe that's when my love for wildflowers blossomed. Well, we lost Papaw back in 2003 and on this particular day in 2006 I was flooded with memories and a fresh amazement at the beauty of God's creation. When I got home that day I loaded Josh and the kids up in the Jeep and we took off on those country roads to enjoy the scenery. We stopped on the side of the road (I'm hoping it wasn't illegal in Mississippi) and we picked flowers for Papaw.

After moving to Florida this past March, I realized how much I had always taken the breathtaking beach views for granted my whole life. I grew up in Florida, but was always about 30 minutes from the beach. Now, we are literally overlooking the bay when we stop at the end of our street. The first few months we were here I would just sit there in awe and think, "Do we really live here?" As I would make the drive into "town" I would take in the sights of the world's most beautiful beaches, a place people come from all over the world to experience. And I live here.

Well, as it seems to so often happen, I realized a few weeks ago that my awe is gone again. Instead of taking in the breathtaking scenery, I'm grumpy about the tourist slowing me down. My eyes are focused on the tasks to be done and missing the wonder and excitement of life happening around me. As I thought about that sad fact it occurred to me that I am so guilty of doing the same thing spiritually. The other night I was deeply burdened and anxious and I confided in Josh that I don't feel God the same. Just to utter those words was painful. I was wanting so much to pray about the heaviness on my heart, but I just felt like I couldn't. Not when I was dealing with these issues. Not when I had said and thought some of the things that I had. In that very moment I felt like God gave me a vision. (Please don't think I'm crazy, even though I know you already do). I was kneeling down and He was covering me with a white robe. And He said, "It's never been about you.It's what I did for you."  Does that take anybody else's breath away? Does that knock your socks off?

I had lost sight, not only of the beauty of God's creation around me, but also of the beautiful work He has done within me. The work that had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with Him.

"I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."

Isaiah 61:10


What a beautiful, amazing God we serve!
 
I read this quote on this blog and felt like it spoke to my heart about my desire to fall in love with my Creator in a fresh and new way.
 
A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore. Heaven may encore the bird who laid an egg. (See Part IV “The Ethics of Elfland” in Orthodoxy) G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy


There is something about the Baptist in me that feels the need to be stuffy and suffer a lot. Does anybody else struggle with that?  Well, I don't know about y'all, but I have found that suffering makes itself at home in our lives enough without seeking it out. I've also found that it has a way of choking the joy right out of us and stealing the beauty of our relationship with our Bridegroom. This weekend I'm going to worry less about laundry and more about the people in my life who need to be loved on. I'm going to slow down and smell the wildflowers. I'm going to marvel in the God who designed them.

I hope you have a great weekend and enjoy the scenery!