Open The Blinds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiXZYiyB1L4

At 5:30 am, I heard my baby boy awake. He is still figuring out what it means to to get a full night's rest. I knew his crying was not from a pressing need, so I laid still to see if he may wander back into sleep. As I lay there, I noticed the sun beginning to rise from the horizon. Because of the amount of light entering the room, I knew that the sun was making it's appearance for the first time that day. I've seen the beauty of a sunrise before, but it isn't a regular occurrence for this night owl. My mind was telling me, "get up, go watch the sun come up," but my body was not responding. So, I laid there staring at the closed blinds, knowing that something beautiful was taking place just beyond them.

Unfortunately, I live with the blinds closed to God's beauty all too often. His beauty is pretty obvious (as obvious as the sun rise), but the choice to open the blinds is not always natural or easy. The blinds in my life are the things that don't go my way; the negative and critical. There are so many let-downs, disappointments, unmet expectations, and difficult circumstances that I often become content with whining and self pity. So, I choose to stare at the blinds instead of choosing to fix my eyes on the beauty of the Lord filling up the universe.

I am in need of God's grace to daily make the conscious choice to open the blinds to God's beauty in my life. I know we can never just take the blinds down, but I am praying for the will to choose to open them new every morning.