“O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” – Psalm 8:1
I clearly remember taking my two-year-old son for a walk down a gravel lane. I had a time oriented goal and place in mind. While he’s now a middle schooler, it seems like a short time ago that we meandered along, with my son stopping to pick up rocks and notice bugs of various sorts. He was in no hurry, instead he was enjoying each wonder he saw on the way.
Children have so much to teach us about discovering beauty. Part of this is because they are experiencing the world for the first time. Children delight in glitter and the joy of a sweet fruit pop in the summer. Children are also able to quickly access wonder. Their connection to awe in ordinary life can be one of the first ways children begin to understand God.
We, on the other hand, are too busy or sometimes jaded to experience beauty as we grow up and take on “adult” concerns. But as the Psalmist reminds us, creation is still here speaking to us of God’s majesty and goodness.
My toddler son serendipitously reminded me on that walk together that acknowledging beauty takes time and often a slower pace. And in exchange I was gifted with the opportunity to really see the small wonders surrounding us.
Beautiful Creator, thank you for the gift of beauty I can encounter each day. Grant me a slower pace and childlike wonder. AMEN
Some Comfort and Joy was developed as a devotional resource that follows the rhythms and seasons of the liturgical year from an Anabaptist-Mennonite perspective.
Comfort & Joy: Readings and Practices for Advent is available now! With readings to walk through the Advent and Christmas season, the weekly offerings in Comfort and Joy include a variety of devotional meditations and invitations to spiritual practices that help us slow down and savor this sacred season.
some comfort and joy 