Beauty beheld

 

This summer I visited a road less traveled.  The kids and I went into the mountains and drove through a 6 mile trail that wound up and down the mountain around a creek and provided a myriad of beautiful scenes to behold.  There were a few others who joined us in this journey.  Families that appeared to be "normal".  But I know better.

I found myself wishing for a different season, longing for a better tomorrow and trying to be content all at the same time.  If you have ever wrestled between the now and not yet, you know how tiring it can be.  And boy am I tired.  "Be still and know that I am God" keeps rolling around in my head.  "Rest in me and I will provide you shelter from the storm" whispers in my ear.  But the daily demands of this new season frankly scream louder than those still small voices from the beautiful creator.

But at the moment, the pressures of the job, family, house, ministry etc seem to outweigh spending time on the road less traveled of being still and letting God fight my battles.  I am walking forward in this season of frustration.  But I will, be still and behold the beauty found in the movement of a single finger on my husband's hand.  I will behold the beauty found in my son growing managing the demands of his new schedule.  I will behold the beauty of my daughter as she learns to be a leader worth following.  And I will behold the beauty that is found after the ashes of this life have nurtured the ground we live on and the flowers of God's grace begin to bloom where there once was no life.

Beholding those beautiful moments will mark the joy that is found in taking the road less traveled, and that, I am certain, will make all the difference.