Beauty

I am from South Georgia...born in central Florida, raised by a mama originally from Buffalo, New York and a daddy from Moultrie, Georgia.  But I've lived in South Georgia for the majority of my life.

I'm dating an East Tennesseean...now he was born in Georgia and I don't let him forget that, but he exudes East Tennessee.  

We visited my parents this past June and it wasn't even that hot yet...I mean, yes, we had gnats and all that, but the sticky level hadn't reached its full potential yet.  He looked at me at one point and said, "Just so we're clear, there is no reason we should ever live here."  Ha!

We were driving down yesterday for the holidays and we turned off of I-75 to the cotton and peanut fields and straight road of highway 33.  I saw that the cotton had just been baled and South Georgia snow was scattered in the fields.  And I breathed in the beauty of this place.  It may not be beautiful to others because they haven't been loved here, they haven't smelled peanuts being harvested, or watched a thunderstorm come in on the horizon.  

Beauty becomes...it is realized in moments, in experiences, and in what becomes a part of our hearts.  True beauty comes in knowing....a person, a place, a reality...

Bethlehem wasn't beautiful...it was busy...it was crowded and probably really dirty.  But I can't help but think that Mary treasured Bethlehem in her heart as a place of immense beauty.  For what she had experienced was a new birth not just for her child, but herself.  What she had believed had come to life.  Her Savior had come...not just in physical form, but in her heart.

Have you seen beauty in your life today?  Have you let the place where you're called and the people you're called to serve become beautiful to you?  Have you made the place where you are Bethlehem?