beauty is in the eye...

There are these ornamental perennial grasses taking up residence in our front yard. They are really pretty. For about one week. Then they decide to go immediately to seed and become these fringy-weedy-looking things, and to me, not at all easy on the eyes. They actually make me think of abandoned houses, empty lots and blowing litter. The other problem with them is that each year, without permission from the homeowners, they decide to expand their living space. Each year the secretary spread grows more and more. 

This year I said to my beloved that I was ready to tear these grasses up. They were doing no good for the aesthetics of the front garden, and I wanted to put something more beautiful there. He was more than okay with this issue, so I set my mind to thinking and figuring just how and when such a task could be accomplished.

In what was literally a few days' time, we made a discovery. Nick and I were heading out for the evening when a rabbit jumped from out of one of these massive tufts of grass. What she left behind was amazing. Seven babies. She had made a perfect nest in this seeming atrocity! After capturing a few good shots with our camera of said babies, we sat in the car, en route to our destination. "Looks like we're not tearing those grasses out," was the only thing said for quite some time.

So here it comes. The point to my telling this story... God began speaking to me about what is lovely, what is truly lovely. He reminded me of how when I gave my life to Him, my life was actually HIS. It's not like I invited Jesus in to become my houseguest. He owns everything that I once considered mine. It's His choice if he wants to redecorate, and it's up to me whether I allow Him to help me see the beauty in His choices, or sit there and complain every step along the way. 

The unlovely. Those darned ornamental grasses. The people shunned by the rest of the world that Jesus gave the time of day to. These all have something in common: these are the places where LIFE can begin. If we uproot them from our lives and cast them aside, we will never be able to foster new life, as we are called to do. If we only ever surround ourselves by things labeled "beautiful" by the world's standards, we will never see the amazing transformation that can come through the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit. 

Mark 2:16-17 says, 

When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Jesus placed a seed in this once unlovely heart and when it grew, something lovely came from it. A soul reborn into eternity. How I long to see true beauty in all things. How I long to see through God's eyes and not my own anymore. "As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it..." (Jesus in Luke 19:41).  Oh that we would all begin to see through His eyes...