Praising God for His Beauty

By David Ettinger

A Great Lesson
I learned a great lesson today: In the midst of all that is going on in the world, never take for granted the beauty of God’s creation.

I learned this lesson while out for a walk. You see, I try to take an hour-long walk every day, but I have a problem: At age 62, I am a hopeless creature of habit and hate getting out of my pattern of life. This includes my walks. I have lived in the same Orlando, Florida, neighborhood since 2004 and 98 percent of my walks have taken the same, redundant, never-changing route.

And this has been just fine with me!

However, working from home and really, really getting into a routine (no going to the office to break things up), I knew I needed a change. Therefore, I took the radical, subversive, and drastic step of actually altering my walking path. I went north instead of south; left instead of right; and trod upon grass instead of pavement.

This modification in behavior was a total shock to my system, but I endured it – and came out so much the better for it!

A Whole New World!
My 67-minute sojourn took me to the community college just four blocks away and at which I once taught. It is a spacious campus nestled into what’s left of the wooded area cut down to make room for it.

As I strode past the various buildings on campus, it was as if I entered through a portal to another world. This other world, in reality, is Orlando as it used to exist before we became the tourist capital of the world; or to put it another way, the “true” Orlando.

I was pleased to find a dirt and grass trail carved into the landscape, surrounded on all sides by tall trees adorned with hanging Spanish moss. The moss swaying in the gusty breeze seemed to be talking to me, saying: “It’s been 16 years; it’s about time you got around to visiting us! Not to mention the fact that you worked just one block away for two years. See what you’ve been missing!”

I did indeed see what I was missing, and it got even better when I eyed a small clearing which led to a tranquil lake. I actually knew about the lake as I would sit by it waiting for class to begin. However, this time I was on the other side of it, the side entered into via a Spanish moss-lined pathway.

I even learned the name of that small, lovely body of water: Lake Pamela. If I had not gotten out of my shell, I never would have discovered that name, nor even bothered to think that that lake had a name at all!

God’s Gift
 I have no doubt this brief change of direction in my staid and boring life was God’s gift to His child of 34 years who has been spending way too much time studying the end-times, trying to make sense of the terrible things going on in the world, and just losing his appreciation of God’s creation.

In the midst of the storm in which we live, God’s beauty is all around us, even as close as our own backyards if we take the time to open our eyes to see it.

I’m so grateful to God for leading me on this detour in my life, and I joyfully praise Him for His beauty!

I found this little guy waiting for me when I got home!

Tagged: A Lovely Walk, Beauty of Creation, Breaking Old Habits, God the Creator, God's Love

Posted in: Application, Christ's Deity, Christianity, Commentary, Devotional, Editorial/Blog, Glorifying God, God the Creator of All Things, Grateful to God, Loving God, Practical