What Do You See?

As our family traveled recently, I was impressed, once again, with the wide variety of landscapes which a traveler encounters as he moves from west to east across the middle of our great country. The evergreen forests of western California soon give way to the arid, high desert landscape that stretches across Nevada, Utah, and most of Wyoming. As you descend out of the Rockies into eastern Wyoming, the scrub brush recedes and you begin to encounter the vast grasslands and wheat fields of the high plains. As you journey into western Nebraska, you begin to see more and more evidence of irrigated agricultural pursuits. By the time you reach central Nebraska, irrigated farmland fills your view as far as the eye can see.

I confess that I still find the scenery in Nebraska to be attractive. The state has been blessed with adequate rainfall this year and it shows. Maybe it is just the “farmer\rancher DNA” that still resides within me, but row after row and acre after acre of healthy corn and soybean fields are still a beautiful sight to me. Seeing fat, sleek cattle grazing in green pastures still appeals to me. But others can experience the very same landscape and speak of how utterly boring and dull it is. I guess it just proves the old adage: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

Thankfully, God sees something beautiful within each and every one of us. Our lives may seem to be dry and desolate, but God can take even the smallest spark of life and create a beautiful work of art. Our lives may seem to be common and boring, but God has always used common people in uncommon ways. God looks past our failures and flaws and finds something attractive. God looks past our “warts” and sees someone of great worth and beauty. We are beautiful in the eyes of our Beholder. May we learn to see each other in the same way that God sees us.

God loves you!
Mike