Friday, October 22, 2010

Living Life Loved

This is the first fall in 14 years that I haven't started another semester of school. And, related or not, this is also the first fall I've really enjoyed the season.
It wasn't too long ago that I saw the first touches of gold on the trees and thought to myself "Wow, it seems early for the leaves to be turning!" Before I knew it, though, one tree had ignited another until the gold, red, and orange flickering flames raged up and down the hills of Northwest PA. Becca and I stopped at Meadville's beautiful graveyard the other day to drive around and take in the glory. Eventually, the fallen leaves along the road called to me until I just had to ask Becca to pull over so we could scuff through them. Right now I'm looking through my front window as the sun streams in past me. I can see a tree - half bare and half ablaze with brilliant yellow leaves. Behind it, a gorgeous blue sky littered with a few fluffy white clouds.

My question to myself and to my readers is this: are we recognizing the beauty around us for what it is? Or are we taking it for granted? Autumn will come every year as it always has. The leaves will change color and fall in our yards; clouds will float lazily through the sky. Will we choose to take time and recognize it for the gift from God that it is?
Please, live your life looking for the glory of God. He's really in every mundane detail.

"We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with God. God walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labour is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake." -C.S. Lewis