45 Minutes

Speaking for myself, often, probably too often, I take God’s creation for granted. Every once in a while, though, something strikes me, and I just stand in wonder and awe of all the beauty around me. Things like sitting on a beach or on a boat and being overwhelmed by the vastness of the ocean and the sky and knowing that is just the tip of the iceberg… so to speak. Or driving through the mountains and coming upon an overlook that makes it seem the peaks and valleys have no end. Or getting lost in the wonder of how many millions of pine trees there must be.

What started me thinking on this was a simple drive to pick up one of my grandsons from basketball camp. It was a beautiful sunny morning, Hardly a cloud in the clear blue sky. As I sat at a stop light on 72nd and Ward, I noticed a large field rippling in the breeze. I don’t know what was planted there but to watch it flow – like water on a pond -was mesmerizing. Kind of an amber waves grain moment. Then as I waited for my grandson in the Ralston Valley parking lot, I began to appreciate the beautiful setting in which that high school resides. The green of the plains rising up to snow-capped mountain after mountain. Kind of a purple mountains’ majesty moment! Horses grazing in a nearby field. Truly an idyllic setting.

I think of Psalm 8:3 – 4 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
What an awesome God we serve! He didn’t have to create such beauty, but He did…for us to enjoy and appreciate and care for.

And just when I was taking it all in, one of His most precious creations came strolling to my car- my grandson. Watching him (and my other 4 grandsons) grow is such a beautiful blessing. Seeing God mold these boys/young men is a source of great joy for me.

I am grateful for that day when, in less than 45 minutes, God opened my eyes and reminded me to ‘stop and smell the roses’ and enjoy the blue sky and the rippling field and the majestic mountains and the special people in my life.

Thank you, God, for loving me in the biggest way possible with the gift of salvation, but also loving me in a million small ways every minute of every day.

Set (your) hopes on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
1 Timothy 6:17b

Dawn Lubker
Ministry Assistant