peony

My life wasn’t always easy when I was growing up.  My father was handicapped and we lived below the poverty line.  Beauty was important to me, even then, because it didn’t cost anything except noticing it.

As I think back, I see flashes of things that I found beautiful as a young child.  The blue bird that my grandma embroidered on my yellow shawl.  I loved the contrast between the two colors and the silky texture of the thread.  I think I was around three?  I remember this really pretty bumpy crystal-like button that she sewed onto a purse she made for me when I was five.  I also remember a pink quilted satin robe that my aunt gave me as a gift when I was four.  It had little pink pearlite buttons that changed as the light hit them.

crab apple blossoms

I remember beautiful flowers from my childhood.  My grandpa planted the same flowers around their farmhouse each year.  The growing season started with daffodils and white narcissus with orange centers.  Brightly blooming forsythia grew in the front yard.  The daffodils were followed by purple columbine.  Around Memorial Day, Grandpa would plant velvety purple petunias in one flower bed and white and red peppermint-striped petunias in the other.  They also had sour cherry trees that lined the driveway coming up to the farmhouse.  Hollyhocks were grown right up next to the side of the house.  Trumpet vine and elderberry bushes grew around the pump.  (My grandma made the best elderberry jelly and water never tasted so good as the pump water!)

columbine

Even as a child, beauty filled my soul.  Even though I didn’t know it, it was drawing me closer to my Savior.  Expose your children to beauty.  Point it out to them.  Explain to them how God created it.  Discuss the textures and colors in a flower.  Revel in their sense of wonder as they point things out to you.

Beauty is a powerful gift that God has given us to draw us back to Him.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.  Romans 1:20

Have a beautiful day!

dandelion fluff

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