Recently I was at one of my favorite places in the Midwest, Fernwood. It’s a gem of a nature park in Niles, Mich., where I grew up. My dad and mom, and my sisters Laura, Mary, Carol, and I all met there for lunch. It happened to be snowing that day, and the setting couldn’t have been more beautiful. The lure of the snow was too powerful, and I dashed outside with my camera to snap a few pictures while we waited for our lunch to arrive.

Somehow the world just seems quieter when insulated by a blanket of snow. The only thing I could hear was the twittering of birds as they flitted from tree to bird feeder to tree again, the cardinals a cheerful, scarlet blur against the snow.

I followed the path under my feet as it wound through the trees, opening up beautiful vistas around each corner.

I couldn’t help but feel that I was in my own Sacred Everyday living out Psalm 16:11:

“You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy. At Your right hand are pleasures for evermore.”

God painted a masterpiece that afternoon and let me wander through it. And I am thankful.

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning —the fifth day. Genesis 1:20-23

Have you ever stood in amazement over God’s creation?

Maybe it was something massive and overwhelming that made you stop and stare, like a mountain or the Grand Canyon. I like to ponder the small things too. The absolute beauty and intricacy of a butterfly just takes my breath away. A butterfly will let you stand close enough to watch him unfurl his proboscis to sip sweet nectar from the flowers. But you need patience.

Jesus calls us to

                                      slow

                                                             down

                                                                                        enough

to notice the beauty God has surrounded us with in nature. Today, stop. Look around you. In what small thing do you notice beauty?