The generosity of God is without measure. It surrounds me and yet I live much of my life unaware of this goodness. Periodically it is so overwhelming that it breaks through the distractions that consume me. I become aware of the way God gives without limit.

Friday was one of those days. This awareness for me is often coupled with a slowing down–a pause from the normal franticness of life. Friday was a beautiful warm fall day and my husband and I went kayaking with two other couples. The lake was lovely and we didn’t see another soul. The water was clear, the sky was a brilliant blue and the trees were displaying the last of their green foliage before changing their colors. We paddled the lake and then waded down a creek to a waterfall for a dip in the pool at its base. The communion was sweet–both with the people and in the times of solo reflection. The dip of the paddles was a cadence that calms the soul and heals it from the chaos of deadlines. It was such a grace!

I wonder why God created this world with such splendor. God certainly didn’t have to. We wouldn’t know the difference. It speaks to God’s nature that the beauty of creation is seemingly infinite. It speaks to the way I am created in the image of God that my soul starts at the beauty. It touches my soul in a way that defies explanation—yet one does not need to explain. It is a universal language of all God’s children. Unfortunately, it is also universal that we are easily distracted from this beauty. We become consumed with the struggle to get ahead or to just stay afloat. We fill our days to overflowing for years upon years. How sad to go through years or months or even one day without seeing the beauty that surrounds us. It might be the finery of a lake or an unsullied smile or the delicacy of a spider web glistening in the early morning.

Generous God, artist of beauty, give me eyes to see the magnificence of your creation each moment.