Tonight I went after beauty.
I didn’t go looking for it.
There it was for all to see.
My dilemma was to decide which beauty to chase.
One was in front and the other behind.

I had guests here in the desert for a few days. They were special guests because they will soon be family. Not blood but dear and becoming dearer.
They will be family because of a choice made, by a son and a girl he loves.
These two who sat, ate, spoke, rested and laughed
with me
are kindred and I am thankful.
They are gone now. Home.
There is time now, before blood family arrive.
I am alone and yet not.
Tonight, as the sun was going down in the west I caught a glimpse of the moon in the east.

I looked in my rearview mirror to see the sun setting and watched the moon rise on the horizon ahead. It was huge. Full.
Beauty
The rising of one and the setting of the other.

And then slightly to the north was the outline of the darkening mountains.

In every direction, beauty.
I wanted to drive to the edge of somewhere so I could see only mountains and moon.
I wanted to drive in the opposite direction to the top of something high where the sunset would be in clear view.
As I looked before and behind I remembered again
There is no beauty created by man that can compare to the beauty created by Him.
God.

There was a day, a few years ago, when the boy I spoke of who has made a choice about loving this precious girl, called me.
He was on the other side of this country of ours
standing on a roof
working
I don’t remember where I was but I can still hear his voice.

“Hi mom”
“Hi Tim” I said
“Guess where I am”
I took a couple of swings at answers, which were incorrect.
“No, I am on a roof working”.
Of course I did the mother thing and told him to be careful.
“Mom”
“Yes Tim”
“I am looking around me and all I can see is mountains”.
“Wow” I said
And then from this boy who was trying so hard to be who he knew he should be and wanted to do what was right, but had a struggle to figure it all out.
“I am just thinking, how can anybody say there is no God”?

I was not there, but I knew what he was seeing. I have looked at that view many times, although never from a rooftop.
I smiled and enjoyed the memory of that beauty.
“Yes, Tim, that is such a good question. How indeed”?

God didn’t need to make beautiful things.
Nevertheless, He did.
Those beautiful things show how magnificent and beautiful He is. They are a gift to us.
For us to enjoy.
But not just.
Designs by Him should have us all, every one, on our knees.
Awe inducing praise should pour from our hearts because He is so much greater, more magnificent, praiseworthy, than His creation. The created, was made to reflect in a small way the greatness of the creator.

Psalm 8:3-9
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Beauty created
for me to enjoy
The greatness of our God.