God’s Beautiful World

I believe God created the Earth and all that is in (on) it. Much of what I see is beautiful. We have polluted it, scarred it, burned it, covered it over with concrete, but there is still much that is beautiful beyond description.

Sometimes we make things beautiful (at least in our own estimation). I know my wife makes our home beautiful at Christmas. It’s not that it is not beautiful (and you can create your own idea of what beauty is, for indeed it is always in the eye of the beholder) at other times, but it is always “ordinary” except at Christmas. She uses the tree with it’s scores of ornaments, the nativity scene, decorations of winter, and items we have both purchased and received as gifts, to create a unique reminder that God is the great giver of life and health and every good and perfect gift.

I never forget that, during the rest of the year, but this is the time or “season” when we choose to make that the focus of our home, our thoughts, our family. Some would say that is wrong. We should not decorate or utilize the baubles of life to create an environment for celebrating.

I want to assure you that the beauty of the Earth is here to remind me of His gracious goodness. The beauty (again, in our estimation) we create is to remind us of His incredible gift. It’s not that I need the reminder, but that I want the reminder. I want these few days of focus each year to heighten the awareness I have the rest of the year of what He has done.

Paul (the Apostle, writer of much of the New Testament) says you can’t judge me for that. (see Colossians 2:16) I have the freedom in Christ to celebrate Him and His wonderful infinite grace as I see fit within the confines of His revealed Truth.

I don’t see “Santa” at Christmas. You may, if you like. I see Jesus. Not just a baby in a manger, but the God of Creation, the God of Heaven, the God of infinite llove, incarnate, taking on the flesh of humanity so that He might give Himself a ransom for my life and that of many others, on Calvary’s Cross. How, you say, do you see that when our society is so fraught with disbelief and ignorance? I choose to see that, beloved. I choose that!