Perspective

I’m hanging out with a just turned 4 year old for the first part of this week. It’s “Camp Auntie” because everyone else got to go to camp this week. Her perspective on life is interesting.

Today, we were driving down the road. It’s a pretty generic road surrounded by businesses on either side, bus stops, cars, etc. You know…city life. We live in a city that has pretty sections for sure, but we weren’t in one of those.

All of the sudden I heard an awestruck little voice. “Hey, look out this window!” What do you see? (Cuz I didn’t see anything particularly noteworthy.). “It’s beautiful out here!”

Then a few seconds passed. “Look our the window on the other side!” Yeah? “It’s beautiful out here too!” What do you see? (Because seriously I wasn’t seeing anything spectacular worth awe or wonder.)

“If you look out the window, it’s beautiful everywhere!”

To her it must have been because it was worth taking a minute to appreciate it but also to name the thing, to call it beautiful. She’s probably been down that road thousands of times, but today it was beautiful.

I saw ordinary. I saw the things I see every day. The people at the bus stop. The traffic and cars that drive too fast or too slow. The stores. The stoplights. The normal. She saw beauty.

And it makes me think. Perspective. Maybe if we stop looking at everything the way we’ve always seen it, maybe we too can find the beauty in the ordinary. Maybe we can find the lovely in the mundane.

Maybe sometimes we need to put our preschool eyes on and look at things as new.

His mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.

God’s creation is always beautiful if we just know how to look at it. If we quit being jaded by life and by the everyday and appreciate each thing as the miracle it is, we can live a much more joyful life.

It’s a challenge for all of us. I need to say, God what wonders have you brought forth today? And look for those wonders in the every day things I see. Appreciate even the messes as the beautiful broken they might be. Look for lovely every day.

This is a short post because Camp Auntie camper woke up at 6:15 am this morning but I thought it was worth posting. Tomorrow, our challenge is to look for beautiful in our world.