My little artist struck again today when she brought a handful of grass into the house. (Read the ratty shoe post to see her other "this-is-beautiful" perspective.)
I was on the phone with the internet company when she came inside, excitedly, showing me her handful of grass, pulled up by the roots. I was like, "Whoa! Why are you bringing lawn grass into my living room?" The internet lady on the other end of the phone started laughing. My little one, unhindered by my distress, held the exceptionally long grass carefully in her hands, tenderly stroking the long blades. "Look how beautiful it is! We need to put it in a vase!"
I was distracted since I was still on the service call with the Internet company and just kind of shooed her away with, "Maci, please take that grass back outside." She walked away and I continued my phone call.
After I ended my call, I went back to the kitchen to finish canning pears and I saw a drinking glass filled with water and stuffed full of the embarrassingly long backyard grass. I just had to laugh. I called Maci downstairs, held up the jar, smiled at her and asked her, "What do you see when you look at this?"
"I see a beautiful decoration!" She exclaimed, accentuating the word beautiful. She smiled and gently stroked the blades of grass again. "I put it in the water so that it could keep growing. And it will get SO big and I can use it as a decoration in my room!"
I left the grass in the glass. It's sitting on my counter as another reminder. 'Cause check this out: When I'd go out to the backyard to tend to the chickens, I would see how long my grass was and I would feel overwhelmed because I'm having a bit of a hard time keeping up with the amount of housework I have right now. I am embarrassed that my backyard grass is so long that I could weave a basket out of it or braid it into a climbing rope or something. The length of the grass is a constant reminder to me that I am falling behind and makes me feel a bit like a failure. But to the honest eyes of an innocent girl, the length of the grass is just, plain beautiful.
Her perspectives have not been tainted by the stresses and responsibilities of life. For her, beauty is still beauty. I do recall the Bible telling us to become like little children in order to enter the Kingdom of God. (Matthew 18:2). There are so many lessons we can learn from the perspective of children. That one verse in Matthew is so loaded! So today, I am reminded to admire the beauty that God affords me even amidst the consequences of my own neglect.
Now I'm not saying that neglecting my yard tasks is a good thing, obviously. But I love how no matter how much I accomplish or how much I fail to accomplish, my God is always there, sprinkling little reminders of His love in my path. And when I stop to look at it, my daughter is right, that grass is really beautiful!
I would love to someday have the eyes of a child that sees the hand of God in everything around me.
