The new year has only just begun (in India anyway), but it has brought such beauty and newness already. And to think: it’s only 8:30 in the morning. So far today, I’ve had the pleasure of starting the year off with communion (what a way to begin, remembering and thanking Jesus for His sacrifice for us all!), celebrating with samosas and cake, movies with friends, laughter and smiles, zapping mosquitos, and watching the sunrise (Yes indeed that means I haven’t slept a wink, but my experience on the roof energized me enough to get me through another day).
At 6:30, I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to make my way up to the roof. I sat there for a while, waiting for the sky to grow brighter. As I did, God began opening my eyes to the beauty and pureness of His heart through His creation. And boy was it stunning. As I kept watching the sky, I saw a boy make his way up to his rooftop, sitting to watch the sunrise, just like me. I hope and pray that he was able to see the same beauty that I was seeing unfold before me.
Witnessing what was before me, I couldn’t help but sing. The first song that popped into my head and out of my mouth was “Beautiful Things” by Gungor. Fitting, huh? As I sang the lyrics, I began to think about them a little more deeply. It goes like this:
All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change, at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found?
Could a garden come up from this ground, at all?
(Spoiler: with God, the answer to all of these are YES) Then the chorus:
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
What a powerful, perfect, loving God that is that cares to make things that are beautiful. He takes things that are dirty, worn down, and broken (us) and loves them enough to make them into something beautiful.
All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You
This one stood out to me the most this morning. As I looked all around me, I could literally see and feel the hope and life that Jesus gives. It filled my soul and my being and gave me such a joy. AH I feel like I could float in mid-air right now.
After I stopped singing, I continued to sit in God’s presence, in awe of what He created for me to see and hear and touch and feel. I saw birds. They flew back and forth in front of my eyes, leaving sounds of flapping and singing behind them. I was amazed by the stillness and the silence of them as they glided from place to place, seemingly frozen in time until they regained motion. I heard the sweeping of brooms on the sides of the road as people cleaned. I heard a child yell out from a nearby house. I heard a honk from a car passing by. I caught a glimpse of a yellow auto (tuk tuk if you will) driving away. The next two things I noticed were people. A boy walked up some stairs to the top of the roof to open a latch and a girl emerged from the second story door to get some fresh air. And for a moment, I saw just a glimpse of how precious and beautiful they are to God. Just how loved and incredibly seen and appreciated they are. Then I looked – no, more like stared – at the trees in the yard next to ours. They were all different types of trees. One of the trees had orange flowers on it. The green leaves were thick-looking and beautiful. For some reason, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the tree with the red flowers (or maybe red balls is a better way to describe them). It was tall, and had multiple thin brown branches spreading in all directions. Then, slowly, birds began to perch themselves on the tree. They just sat. I suppose that’s probably what I would do too if I were a bird. I just stared at the tree, taking in its beauty. How precious it was.
Then I felt like God was nudging me, saying, you see how precious that tree is? I find you even more precious than that. And I looked around, mentally pointing at more precious things, like a small bird that flew by. “Am I more precious than that?” Yes, even more precious than that.
The next thing I experienced made me smile with even more delight. As time passed, the sky grew brighter, and the sun rose higher. And suddenly, without me knowing that the morning could get any better, the sun began to peek out above the building that previously blocked its view. Even a tiny sliver was able to shine so bright. And as it rose higher, it became even brighter. So bright that I couldn’t look at it for longer than a second. It began to heat my face and warm my cold toes. Strange as it sounds, it felt like God was kissing my face as I sat there on that rooftop. I felt His eyes on me. His gaze fixed. I felt the love of my Father. It made me feel like a child again. And it was beautiful.
