Every time you feel in God’s creatures something pleasing and attractive, do not let your attention be arrested by them alone, but, passing them by, transfer your thoughts to God and say: “O my God, if Thy creations are so full of beauty, delight and joy, how infinitely more full of beauty, delight and joy are Thou Thyself, Creator of all!”
Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain
Love & Peace,
My brothers and me, we got trust issues. Here I am, my 6-year-old gullible self, once more the target of their good-natured, little-sister teasing.
A warm summer evening; the sound of the brothers laughing. I go outside to investigate. Big mistake.
The brothers are shooting bats. Yes, bats—with BB guns. Saturday night entertainment and I find myself the star of the show.
“Watch out! Bats love to fly into little girls’ hair!” Brother 1 yells.
“What?!” My heart begins to race.
“Yeah,” Brother 2 joins in, “They’ll fly into your ratty hair and make a dirty old nest!”
“What?!!” My hand instinctively reaches up to my tangled, uncombed head.
“Duck!” screams Brother 3, and I hit the ground hard.
To this day, I hate bats. I know they are God’s creatures and all, but I still hate bats.
»»————- ♡ ————-««
I re-read the words of Martin Luther,
“You cannot keep birds from flying over your head but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.”
I’m reminded of the bats.
But, it’s not about bats or birds or any such thing. It’s about negative thoughts. Fearful thoughts. Lying thoughts that cause me to hit the ground hard.
I can’t always prevent a negative thought from entering my mind, but I don’t have to allow it to build a nest in my hair. I have the power to choose what I believe and what I allow in my mind. And that’s a powerful thought.
So when a negative thought flies over head, I count backwards from five. Five, Four, Three, Two, One … and I shoot. Sometimes more than once, but eventually, the thought hits the ground hard, not me.
Love & Peace,
“… and we take captive every thought …” 2 Corinthians 10:5
“I wonder why I didn’t see it there before …”. Belle, from “Beauty and the Beast”
“You have a good eye”, she says. “A good eye for color.” I like the sound of that. A good eye–my heart smiles. I feel artistic, creative, color-full. Yet, what does it really mean–to have a good eye?
I read the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “There is no object so foul that intense light will not make beautiful.“
He says it, too, the beast/prince to Belle in the fairytale, “Try to find me and know me…no matter how I may be hidden from you.”
Is it possible to see this world with a good eye? To see the prince in the beast? To see beauty in the ugly, in the wretched, in the unlovely?
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy (good), your whole body will be full of light“, the words of The Good Book reveal.
Full of light. To be light-full. No hate, no disgust, no evil intent. Soul eye clear of life’s distorting cataracts–those shifting memory-shadows that shade, darken, infect.
A view through the lens of wabi-sabi: finding beauty in imperfection. Eye-filling goodness that transforms.
Centered only on the prevailing light of the good eye of the Father of Lights … the bad eye becomes the good eye, seeing through the wretched to the hidden good and perfect gift within.
“Try to find me and know me…no matter how I may be hidden from you.”
Is it possible to see the world around me with a good eye? I’m not sure. But I think I’m willing to give it a try. At least I want to be willing. And maybe that’s good enough for now.
Love & Peace,
Note: Updated from my archives.
Our hearts are with the victims and their families in Dayton and El Paso. They remain in our prayers.
INSPIRE 