Just tonight, i saw beauty. I was laying in bed about to go to sleep when i decided to look out the window. I love the view from the third floor of the Hamernick's house! I looked out the window and just above me in the sky was a cloud-covered sliver of the moon. To my right was a snarly tree with branches all twisted and curled with a reddish hue behind it from the city lights. To my left was a street lamp illuminating the snowy road beneath it and the steps of the abandoned building next door. After seeing all of THAT out my measly little window, I decided to venture onto the back porch and brave the cold to see how pretty it was out there.I wasn't disappointed! The backs of the apartment buildings across the alley all had their porch lights on and that made the snow look like a city wonder. It was.....a sharp beauty. I loved it even if I couldn't stay out their for more than 5 minutes...:)
So often we are distracted by the bad things we see.....the problems we have, whether or not we have peanut butter in the house, how we are going to fill our gas tank for the week, how not to sleep through an alarm clock....that we can't even begin to see the beauty that's around us. Have you ever stopped and just marveled at the simple beauty around your own home? Take a second to stop and look at the nearest chair or table and see how many memories come back to you of different things that took place in that exact spot. One object can trigger a multitude of emotions! Beauty isn't just in the eye of the beholder and a picture isn't simply worth a thousand words.....it's so much bigger than all of that. It's the simple and joyous creation of God. "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord..."
My favorite activity of the week is the El Experience. It isn't just my favorite because I get to sit on a train for two hours and do nothing.....it's my favorite because of what I get to see. The main reason we take a group of BB's on the El is so that they can see the huge differences between the neighborhoods. We start on the South Side at either the 95th Red Line stop (farthest south the red line goes) or the Green Line Garfield stop (goes above ground through downtown). This is what it's like going through the residential parts of the south side:
<---This is where I get on the train .
This is an actual picture taken from the green line. It's just a few apartment buildings placed together in the middle of a lot. I've seen these buildings a few times and it's a decently accurate description of what you find down here.The next portion of the city you see on the El Experience is the Loop or Downtown:
High rises and packed parking lots set right beneath and around the train. The El literally roars past your window every 5-10 minutes! How would you like that? The third and final neighborhood you get to see on the El Experience is the North Side:
This is a row of houses/apartments in Wrigleyville. Neat little rows, neat little houses.
Do you see the differences? None are specifically bad or amazing, but each has it's own specific pull. While it may seem pretty ugly to some to see a few sporadic apartment buildings in the middle of a lot or really packed tight houses on a one way street as opposed to high-rise apartments, skyscrapers and a train roaring past your window, there is always a person who can see the beauty in a place even when it has experienced poverty. Beauty is still present in all places of God's creation.
Experience it.
Maranatha.
-Kelly
No comments:
Post a Comment