Beauty in the Eyes of the Beholder

... God has made everything beautiful for its own time.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT

During a recent visit with our lovely daughter and family, I was walking on "my path" on the Dover Air Force Base.

I love my path! There are walkers and their dogs, playing children and military "manifestations" (like signs written in military rather than civilian time), and best of all, safety and well-cared for walking areas. But for as many times as I have walked my path, I wasn't prepared for the delightful, though shocking, surprise on the day in question.

A mom on a cell phone and her little girl were up ahead, just at the point where I could chose the longer way "home" or the shorter. The little girl was probably about 4 years old. As she saw me approach, she said, "hi!" with a very cheerful smile.

I responded (being sure to make eye contact with her mom also),"Hi, honey, how are you?"

With a little lilt in her voice, she said, "Good!" And then after a brief pause, this sweet little girl said, "You're pretty!"

I was stunned ... here I am an almost 70 year old "Babci" (Grandma), dressed in exercise clothes, with hood up ... pretty? Hardly!

But at least I had enough presence of  mind (by God's grace) to graciously respond, "Thank you, honey! You are too!"

And since that day, I have been reflecting ...

Beauty really IS in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? Or is it?

Maybe because of all the evil and heartache and ugliness we often see around us, we wonder if there really is any beauty anywhere at all.

Or could it be that we just have become so "jaded" that we no longer see with God's eyes what is true reality all around us? 

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT    

How wonderful it would be to have the eyes of a child and see the way God intended!

So here is the question I'm asking myself:  
Where am I missing beauty today?
Is it in my family, my home, my neighborhood?
Is it in the little things around me?
Is it in the "little people" that are easy to ignore?
Like someone's grandma walking past me at Kroger or on a walking path?

You too, my friend? Then join me in this prayer:

Lord, give us your eyes to see the way You see ... and the way that little child sees. Don't let us miss the beauty and the value all around. And teach us to speak that beauty we see into others' lives ... for their joy and delight ... and most of all for Yours!

This is the truth: unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. In that kingdom, the most humble who are most like this child are the greatest. 
Matthew 18:2-4 VOICE