Every Perfect Gift

"Don't be deceived, my dear friends, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:16-17

Some days, when the world is bleak like today, and the fog settles in thick, it is easy to miss the beauty around us. It is more likely that we will slip around on the wet leaves, struggle, tiptoeing through cold puddles, hunching huddled under an inadequate umbrella, cursing the day and the weather. On days like today, it is especially hard for us to see the perfect and the beautiful and even harder to receive them as gifts. And yet, each falling leaf has an exquisite beauty, tendrils and colors making an elaborate, lively tapestry under our feet. We walk on carpets of heavenly artwork and wish for an easier commute and a less complicated and challenging day.

Today, I want to try to celebrate the beauty in the everyday around me. The water and the fog, the faces that grimace as they struggle to the bus and yet who dream of their children and happy times holding loved ones close. I want to see through the temporary challenges and see the permanent beauty that God has draped around us and embedded with in us. I want to see the gift in the Creator's eyes, reflected like the smile of a loving parent in their new born child. I want to be remade so that I can see beauty where now I only see challenge. May God give us an extra measure of tender sight today, so that we might all glimpse the permanent, everlasting heavenly lights, that shine through, even in the darkest hours.