Catch the Beauty

I never thought the time would come when I was too busy to take time for beauty. You know, ‘stop and smell the roses’, and all that jazz. I mean – who doesn’t stop and smell the roses?! I sure do. At least – if they are growing right beside the path. 🙂

But mothering 4 kids and all that goes along with running a home tends to make one busier than you would think. I don’t always stop and smell the roses – because that would mean walking across my yard to get to them. And that is sacrificing 10 minutes of time. I can start a load of laundry and change a diaper in 10 minutes. Or mix up a batch of bread. Or write a blog post. Or… Or…

Or I can stop.

I can slip on a coat, grab my camera, and run outside when the sun is setting (or rising) and take a few snapshots. Because it is beautiful. And because God painted it – so why shouldn’t I enjoy it? It is beautiful. I love beauty. God created me to love beauty.  I never skip meals – because I don’t like to get hungry! But I regularly skip feeding my senses, because that doesn’t seem so important. Maybe it is more important than I think. Maybe I need to regularly feed on beauty.

“…it is God who reveals beauty as essential to life. You are the image bearer of this God.”  ~John & Stasi Eldredge (Captivating)

My practical side says: “It’s nearly suppertime. You need to start making food or people will get hungry. You don’t have time to go take pictures. Be sensible.”  

But I am learning that it is OK to enjoy beauty. That supper will get made – and if it’s a couple minutes late – we will still all eat tonight. The beauty won’t last. I need to catch the beauty.

How do you feed your senses with beauty? Do you paint? Photograph? Just sit and drink it in?