The smell of popcorn fills my kitchen and I watch as my microwave begins to countdown from 20. I usually opt for stove top popcorn but tonight all I had was Kroger’s movie theater butter microwavable popcorn. As I crack open the bag, I wish I had a movie to watch but nothing in my collection seemed appealing. I considered going to Redbox a movie but once I started eating popcorn there was no leaving and coming back to it. After I had eaten a few handfuls of popcorn, I wished I had Junior Mints or Snowcaps (I like to make popcorn sandwiches with these chocolate delights) to cap off my late evening snack. And then I wished I was drinking a diet coke (9:30 caffeine consumption leads to late nights) instead of water. And before I could wish for anything else, I stopped my thoughts and realized that I was missing out on the beauty of my popcorn(now half gone) because I was too busy picking apart what was missing.
This weekend I was a bridesmaid in a lifelong friend’s wedding. As she walked down the aisle and I stood at the front of the courtyard I wasn’t thinking about the clouds moving in taking away the rays of sunshine overhead, I wasn’t making sure her veil was on her head straight or her lipstick was evenly applied, and I wasn’t paying attention to anyone in the rows of chairs…I was completely fixated on the beauty that was radiating from both her image and her soul. I know I am not alone in my fixation. When a bride walks down an aisle, most people attending the ceremony allow everything else to fade away and their only focus is the bride. It’s so easy to behold the beauty of a bride but why is it so hard to behold the beauty of God? When we are surrounded by his beauty why do we, at times, pick apart the volume of his bliss? Through his beauty, my life has been changed and He has picked apart every “ugly” trait I have ever possessed and he has picked apart every “ugly” situation I have ever faced. God is constantly surrounding us with his beauty but sometimes we have to go through the mud in order for Him to display His beauty. It’s easy to allow God’s beauty to go unnoticed and to pick apart what is missing from our lives when we are in the “ugly” times of life but fortunately for us friends God is never in “ugly’ times. He never stops providing us with His beauty both in us and around us. And if life were always full of glamour and glitz we wouldn’t need his beauty because we would be satisfied with our own version of beauty. The next time you don’t behold the beauty in a situation, ask yourself, “What would happen if God decided to focus on what was missing from my life instead of seeing the beauty I possess?” I can assure you that God wouldn’t stop at Junior Mints and diet coke if he picked apart my life to see what was missing and I can also assure you that I wouldn’t captivate him like a beautiful bride. But mostly I can assure you that by beholding His beauty, my life hasn’t been missing anything and I find myself lost in His beauty daily.
Verse to remember: Psalm 27:4 One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.
No comments:
Post a Comment