I just took the most wondrous walk with our dog, Coach. For the past two days, we've received sleet and frozen rain-although, I was secretly glad because I get to sit by the fire and read and write guilt-free. Today, I knew I had to get Coach out for some exercise, so I put on my boots and took him on a walk through the 100-Acre Wood. This is my favorite path to take, because it's along this beautiful wooded path with a quaint wooden bridge.
As we walked, I studied the trees. They seemed pretty normal, even drab, with their brown bark and stark, leafless branches. I knew the ice had coated the trees, so if I looked closely, they looked a little wet. It was easy to pass them by, hustling along on the cold morning.
But when I reached the end of the path, I turned around and started towards home. What a wondrous sight waited for me. The same, drab, brown trees now sparkled and shone with a million diamond lights. I was now walking into the sun, and it dazzled and reflected off the icy trees, so that I felt I was in a different land. It was like each tree was a sparkler in a firework display. Truly, I was so overwhelmed with the beauty, that I stopped to say a prayer right then and there, thanking God for His amazing creativity.
As I continued the walk, I began to think that the trees were a lot like people. We pass them and don't take much notice. But if we turn around. If we look at them in a different way, we are amazed at how glorious they are. One turn. One new way of looking. What was once a dull brown tree is now a rare thing of beauty. What beautiful God-given gifts lay inside of people that we never even imagine?
Sure the walk home was harder. I was walking directly into the arctic wind, blowing and biting at my face. But, oh, it was so worth it to see the trees sparkling in the sunlight. My goal this Lenten season is to try to walk the harder way and see the different side of people. I think it will be a wondrous walk, indeed.
