Pretty things delight us. They are mood enhancers, day brighteners, heart lifters. They reflect God’s creativity in their beauty and they make us glad.
Our recent move helped me choose between what is nice, satisfactory, or familiar and things that give me pleasure. Yes, I’m aware of their temporal nature, but I’m also mindful of the expansive range of creative gifts God gives us for our personal enjoyment.
Exodus 35 offers a beautiful description of God endowing humans with His creativity.
He chose Bezalel and “filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts.” He filled others “with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers” (verses 30-34).
The pretty things around me prompt praise for the Creator who inspired the creation of their beauty. What pretty things lift your spirits? Is it time to refresh your surroundings? Feel free to share a picture… and praise the Lord!
BARBARA HIGBY 