How incredibly beautiful this world is. Sit back & imagine it. Think of the most incredibly beautiful things you can think of. Maybe you’re contemplating the sparkly lights & glittering ornaments hanging on your tree. Maybe you’re thinking about the pleasure of the first sip of a frothy & sweet mug of hot chocolate or the joy of giving rather than receiving. Maybe it’s the first snow of the season or the first bloom of Spring. Maybe, today, when you consider what is beautiful, you will envision a quiet, sunny afternoon sipping tea & reading a good book. Maybe what you consider beautiful is quite the opposite. Maybe it’s a fun concert or the hustle & bustle of the big city. Maybe your idea of beauty is admiring great works of art or architecture. Maybe you take joy in watching humanity as people move through their daily lives, grow strong & resilient in the face of life.

Maybe your idea of beauty is not what you can see, but rather what you hear. Maybe it’s the soft, gentle notes strung together in a beautiful melody, or the warm, deep laughter coming from the depths of hilarity at a silly new joke. Maybe it’s the purring of a precious baby kitten in your arms or the coos & whimpers of the child you helped bring into this world.

Maybe today your beautiful is watching your son conquer a fear or claim a victory. Maybe it is a quiet evening in the grass under a clear, starry night. Maybe it is snuggling with your fur babies, or the glittering shine on your left hand reminding you of a promise made for forever. Today, beauty might be the excitement of a new adventure in a new place, experiencing a new culture filling the atmosphere around you & the ones you love. Maybe, today, your beauty is the start of something new or the end of something old. Maybe today, it is the chance to say yes or the courage to say no.

Maybe today, your beauty is the Artist’s sunset & color palette of the twilight sky, or walking through a door you haven’t visited in too long. Maybe, today, it’s a dusty old box filled with precious memories of the ones frozen in time. Maybe today, it’s the voice on the other end of the phone or healing something that’s been broken for far too long. Maybe today it’s the familiar smell of your family’s cooking or your favorite dessert for your birthday.

Today, maybe your beauty is the person looking back at you from the mirror. Today, maybe it’s accepting your life, loving it, & living it as no one else could.

There is so much in this world that is stunningly, amazingly, audaciously beautiful. And with every beautiful thing on this tiny planet spinning a-gazillion miles an hour…we still know something is still a little off. It’s like looking at a masterpiece & catching sight of a little stain on the canvas out of the corner of your eye. Because…as beautiful as this world & this life is…it’s stained by our separation from our Creator…and it is so bittersweet.

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” -John 3:17

But, as beautiful as this world is…even tainted by our stain…it is nothing in comparison to the love of a Savior who gave Himself for you…not out of necessity, but out of desire. Oh, the beauty of the weight that is lifted in knowing I can neither earn, nor am I required to, earn His love, because how can one earn what is already granted? Oh, the incredible beauty that we know in this world is nothing in comparison to the perfect, unimaginable, peace, satisfaction, joy, grace, mercy, & love from Christ. It is nothing in comparison to the beauty that will return when He makes this world whole again. And for everything that is beautiful in this world…it is exciting & insane to think it is nothing in comparison to what we will experience one day if we choose to accept the gift that has already been offered…but you have to choose.

Oh to think…what we know is truly nothing in comparison.

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:16-17

Be blessed, friends.