There is just so much beauty in this world!  Here at the cusp of May, the flowers have begun to blossom, the trees to bud, the grass shaking off dull brown in the restoration of vibrant green.  Beautiful!  So too is the beauty of the sky.  As I drove into Circleville one day last week, I saw the sun breaking through the clouds in the most magnificent fashion!  It was as though its heat burned a hole through the puffiness of condensed white vapor, while slicing clean lines through the surrounding layers, all to share its radiant glory over everything its light touched.  And its light shone on Circleville. 

 Never before had the scene off 23 South, been so beautiful.  Now, I must pause here to point out that this is a significant revelation!  Rolling off the highway, down the ramp, with the 23 overpass in the foreground and the huge grain elevators behind, one is not exactly inspired to ponder the beauty of the world!  I remember casting eye upon that same scene when I first visited Circleville, way back in the fall of 2010.  (Why does that seem like so long ago?)  I remember being in awe of the vastness and size of the grain elevators, but never once did any consideration of beauty come to mind.  But on this day, with the massive structure illuminated beneath God’s glorious sunshine, it became a beautiful sight.

Its beauty is further magnified when I consider that just this week the farmer whose field backs up to my neighborhood, began to prepare the earth for seed.  Soon, I’ll have a view of cornstalks shooting up from the ground, just beyond the fence of my own back yard.  And I give thanks to God for the promise of another crop, particularly given how dry and disappointing the last season was.  The world needs food and our community needs the produce which supports our way of life.  And with the sun shining down upon the grain elevators, it was as though God were saying, “I have heard your cry and will lead you to a land of abundant supply!” 

Of course, I may be reading a bit much into nothing more than a random meteorological event, but then again…  God blesses us in these simple ways, giving us reminders of God’s presence, encouraging rays of sunshine following dreary, cold rain.  And I am reminded once again that both are necessary to the harvest of fall!  “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.  You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.”  (Malachi 4:2)  Beautiful!