Invitation to Beauty

I believe God's presence is everywhere. Yet it's hard, sometimes it's so hard, to enter and to remain there. I sit in stillness for a few moments and find that I'm so distract-able. I see the violin and want to pick it up. I desperately need to practice today! I see the vacuum and want to pick it up. This house is a mess! I see my coffee cup and want to pick it up. It's almost empty again! I see my pen and want to pick it up. I need to capture these thoughts, these moments!

I want to pick up everything I lay eyes on, yet I'm supposed to be here, present to Presence, laying it all down. I think to myself, this is why we teach children to close their eyes and pray.

So I close my eyes. My thoughts still flit and falter like a hyperactive child. And my ears find new distractions. For a moment I think about the soft hissing of the gas fireplace. Then a ripple of birdsong pierces the air and I think about that for a moment. I close my eyes tighter still and try to find some center in it all. Some wellspring of peace.

From somewhere, the thought comes that I was created to love beauty. I was intended to enjoy the ripple of birdsong, to admire the soft hiss of the fireplace. My love for the beauty on earth calls me back to, calls me deeper into, my love for the Author of Beauty. I am free, called even, to revel in it. I am invited to take more of my moments and consecrate them to awareness and appreciation and adoration. To center them on the Beauty of the Divine in this world. In His world.

Oh, what an invitation!