The Eye of the Beholder

Today I was just struck by the beauty of the world that we live in.  I mean, take a minute to look outside. It might be brown, green, or white, depending on where you're at, but isn't it beautiful? Here's a few pictures of the landscape I was looking at when I started thinking this.

Now, maybe you're thinking, "Is she crazy? Has just 2 months in Africa made her forget what is really beautiful, like the mountains in Colorado?" I know that these pictures show mostly sand and if you look closely you'll see all the trash too. But the trees in the first one are quite nice, and look at the gorgeous blue sky in the second one. The sky is always blue like that around here, in fact, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen a cloud since I was on the plane ride here. And as much as all that sand bothers me when it gets everything dirty, I have begun to see it as beautiful. I still miss scenes like this sometimes:


"My" mountains at sunrise

This is captivating. Well, maybe not the picture itself, but if you've ever seen the sun rise on the Rocky Mountains you can understand the full glory of what this one snapshot reveals. But I don't think that God, while making Earth, said, 'Let's put all the pretty stuff here, here, and here. And whoops! I didn't leave anything for Kansas or the Sahara, guess they'll just be kind of plain.' He made the whole world beautiful.

I'm in awe of the fact that when I just take the time to look for the beauty surrounding me, I find it. Maybe it's because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and you have to be ready to behold beauty it to see it. So look around you, and stand in awe of the One who made the earth beautiful.