When i was growing up my sister had an old Brownie camera, and then one Christmas she got a Polaroid. You know, the one which, after you take a picture, it slides out the film that develops right in front of your eyes. i think i’ve got thousands and thousands of Polaroid pictures in my head – the time the neighbor boys, myself and my brother played football all afternoon. In my head is a snap shot of us all laughing, dirty, skinned up, but laughing – forever in my mind as a good time. Or my son’s favorite hunting dog when it tree’d his first raccoon. i’ve got a snap shot in my head of that moment! i can still see the pleasure on my son’s face and the dog’s face. Or my wife’s eyes reflecting in the stripe of sun light coming through the shades in the morning.
Leviticus 23:40 has a Polaroid picture in it of a bright accent. “And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook;” Hmmmm….beautiful trees. Does just saying that inspire the vision in your mind? It’s as if the Lord is pointing out beauty. He calls them “beautiful trees”. Do we notice? Do you remember the big old tree in the park, or behind your house? The bark, the leaves, the shade? Remember how it looked and when you played near it or in it? Can you see it?
All through the Bible God speaks of beautiful things, like He’s pointing them out for us to notice also. God does not tell us things or point things out to us just so we can know. “Seeing” is very different than “purposefully taking note of”, and then there is the idea of “seeing” meaning “to look with eyes wide open in amazement”. Can you see?
Take note of beautiful words like in Gen 49:21, beautiful cities in Deuteronomy 6:10, beautiful houses in Deuteronomy 8:12, beautiful children, women, or men, Queen Vashti in Esther 1:11, “was beautiful to behold”. Psalms says the city of our God is beautiful the way it is positioned, that praise is beautiful, that holiness not only is beautiful but make us beautiful, and that God makes all things beautiful in it’s time. God points out to us that Moses was a beautiful child. 1 Peter 3:5 speaks of a beauty not necessarily seen with our eyes, it speaks of an inner beauty that was gentle and gracious. Colossians 3:11-12 reveals to us that the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, 12 thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.”
What is beautiful in your life? All through out the Bible, God is pointing out these types of things that we would take notice of the beautiful, the bright, the accented, His highlights. Star filled skies, sun rise, sun set, little girls eyes, seasons – like winter and spring, holidays, eating together, good companionship, the smell of the forest and the flowers, fresh cut lawns, evenings on the front porch. Do we notice that God is highlighting those things to us, or are we so neck deep in the mire of the world we constantly miss the bright and beautiful around us?