Beauty

Weekends.  A time to unwind, visit with friends, enjoy couch time with family, football games, and afternoon naps.  In a world that is plagued with going, going, going, doing, doing, doing there is peace that comes with a slow pace.  This weekend particularly, as I slowed my pace I found peace, but I also found an unexpected gift.  A gift called beauty.

Have you ever sat with someone you love and in an instant, in that moment, you experienced beauty?  Beauty, like your husband of over a decade looking at you like he did on your wedding day?  Beauty while sitting with a child and in a simple movement you recall them as a toddler? Or in a glimpse you see the sweet innocent face that you gave birth to ten years ago or longer?

Beauty.

Maybe the beauty I am referring to can be best described in the scene of a movie.  In the movie, The Passion of the Christ, there is one particular scene where Mary is running to catch a glimpse of her beloved son, Jesus, as he carries OUR cross to Golgatha. She darts into an alley and sees him just as he stumbles and falls from the weight of the heavy cross.  In that moment, her memory rushes to a previous time where Jesus, a toddler, falls down, and she runs to comfort him.  Beaten, bloody and in anguish, he whispers words that take our breath away, because they are so beautiful. 

He looks into her eyes and says, "Behold mother, I make all things new." {which, by the way, Jesus actually says to us in Revelation}

                                                                        

Beauty.

These moments of old, these times of the past, blow into our minds and hearts like an unexpected gush of wind.  Gifts of beauty sent to us by a loving Savior who, during his last meal with his disciples, urges them to remember.  "Do this in rememberance of me." 

When our lives draw to an end here, when we are about to step over into eternity, the jobs we had, the cars we drove, the projects we never completed, the friends we had on Facebook will be nothing.  We will hold tight to the gifts of beauty. We will hold tight to things like watching your daughter's hair blow in the wind.

 We will hold tight to the look in the eyes of a husband, who looks at you with the same love and adoration as he did watching you walk down the aisle.

We will hold tight to things like the way your son's tiny hand felt inside yours as you marveled at how something so magnificent could come from your body. 

We will hold tight to the one who makes all things, even old things, new again. 

Beauty.