It’s there if you take the time to look…

Maybe I’ve gotten sappy and soft as I have gotten old. Maybe I’m just tired of the strife. In a world so filled with noise and injustice, God is still here. Be still. Listen. Look.

Be still, and know that I am God!

Psalms 46:10

Now that I don’t have to be on the radio in the morning, I get to find peace and enjoy my favorite time of the day. I love this time of year. The days are long. The light comes early. Here’s the view at 6:00 a.m. out of the window of the spare bedroom I use as a study and a studio…

Eric and Karen’s house on the left (south). Skip and Becky’s house in the middle. That house on the right (north) has been vacant for a couple of years now. Somebody owns it – he just doesn’t live there. Weird. It used to be Kenny and Marilyn’s. But they moved and I miss them. It’s just a common, everyday streetscape in small town, suburban, USA.

But be still. God is here. Look close.

Look between Skip and Becky’s house and that vacant house. God’s great Rocky Mountains in the distance. Out towards I-25, you can see Buck-ees and the knew high school. That clump of trees is about a half a mile off. I have looked out this window for all the 17 years we have lived in this house. I’ve watched those leaves change colors. Fall to the ground. The trees get frost and snow covered and then come alive again in the spring. I’ve wondered if kids have explored there. Probably trespassed on that farmer’s land. As a 10-year-old kid on a Schwin with a banana seat, that would have been an irresistible destination. Now I just wonder. An old man dreaming dreams.

Be still. Look. Between Skip and Becky’s and Eric and Karen’s houses.

The Rocky Mountains. I-25 about four miles west. Another clump of trees just ripe for exploring and fort building. Do kids even do that anymore? I hope so. When Julie and I moved in here, neither of those homes existed. We had an unhindered mountain view from our front porch. But we knew they were lots and the houses would be built. First it was Eric and Karen’s house. We’d sit on the front porch together and I would laugh, saying I would one day sell my house using the description of “mountain views – if you squint just right between the houses.” Karen came over one day and warned me she was going to ruin my mountain view because she was planting an aspen tree on the north side of the house. It was five feet tall. Barely poked over the fence. Today, well, time marches on.

Be still. Look. Between Eric and Karen and John’s house on the south.

A farmhouse and the clump of trees at his place. I don’t know who lives there. But for 17 years, I have looked out the window and watched the change of seasons in his field. Planting. Irrigation. Harvest. Winter. Spring. Summer. Time marches on.

God is everywhere. And so is His beauty. Just be still. Zoom in. It’s more than just a tract home streetscape. It is the Glory of His creation just waiting for our appreciation and discovery.

Be still, and know that I am God!