There is a lot of ugliness around for me to pay attention to. Of course, there are the evil and devastating things on the news. "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars..." it says in Matthew. And for me, even more than the mean and sad things in the headlines, I see the ugliness cozying right up next to me. Sometimes literally ugly sights- like the nasty dishes flaunting their reign of terror in my kitchen. And the toys that end up as randomly placed in the corners of our house as possible. And the dirty floors, dusty shelves, spreading laundry, and grungy bathroom that make me feel like I can't like my own home. And that is just the visible- the sounds of conflict and feelings of frustrated loneliness can be uglier.
But the end of that verse in Matthew. The entire verse reads, "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come." One way that I see to it that I am not so alarmed is turning my attention a few degrees to the side and seeing the beauty. Like in Philippians when it says to think about the things that are lovely and worthy of praise. So sitting on top of the laundry pile is the pretty dress I got for my girl at a garage sale this week. The dishes bear the remains of the yummy new recipe that I tried out. You get the drift. I get cynical sometimes about praising about the little things- yada yada, yeah, my mess is really wonderful. But after a day of bickering and cranky children, my oldest grabs the hand of his little sister to help her as she crosses the street to our house. I saw it, and it was like sunshine in my heart. I was, for once, paying attention. It was beautiful.
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