True Beauty

Wednesday evening I was driving home and it was snowing.  As I turned the corner to head down my street, I found a winter wonderland.  The snowflakes were big and fluffy and I was driving into them.  My street which is usually dull and dirty was freshly covered and lovely.  The trees were coated with snow.  I felt as if I had driven into one of my snow globe scenes.  I slowed down and took it all in for a few seconds.  My mind went right to this theme of “the beauty of the Lord”.  I thought, “God made this snow just for me!”  Then this evening I went to Bauska to do their youth meeting.  On the way there, the road was closed and I had to take a detour through unknown Latvian back roads.  I wasn’t happy about it and it made me a few minutes late.  But on the way home, I wasn’t tense or in a hurry and discovered I was driving through another beautiful winter scene.  There was no one else on the road and I had the bright lights on.  I could see the fresh snow on the ground and the evergreen trees and again, I thought how wonderful God is for creating this world for us.  Except that I took one wrong turn and ended up in a strange town, it was a very nice ride home.  

But, more than the beauty of creation, I have seen the beauty of God’s people.  During a training committee meeting yesterday, I began to talk about our candidates and I was overwhelmed at how God has ‘made all things beautiful’ in their lives and yet, He has much more that He plans to do in and through them.  It will be so exciting to see how that plan unfolds.  I can’t even imagine what they will be like when they finish training.  Then there was a moment with the Bauska youth group tonight when I felt like the Lord was really speaking to them.  I was reminding them that Advent is the time when we wait for the Lord, but we also invite Him to come.  I felt like I needed to challenge them about their relationship with Jesus.  It got very quiet (they were chatty all evening) and I believe that message was specifically for someone.  I don’t know who or if they responded to God’s voice, but I could feel His presence.  Another ‘beauty’ moment.

My scripture reading from John 1 today gave me another beautiful picture – of the Messiah:

[14] The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
[29]… "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”