Small Wonders Are Oh So Easy to Miss, So Look Closely With Eyes Wide Open!

We know this, right? 

I mean - the bigger wonders... the signs and miracles and dramatic immediate answers to prayers... those we can spot from a mile away and we shout them from the mountain tops! And we should... oh how we should! Shout them out at the top of your breath and let praises ring loud and clear... bring glory to God in the ways He is showing up and showing off... Yes. That.

But also this: I am finding that it's so often those small wonders... the everyday ways that God bestows beauty and grace that add up and shower down and oh how we can miss them if we are not training our eyes to seek and to find!

Life is busy and this world spins on the edge of chaos for many of us. It is easy to miss all the ways He is pointing us back to Him... all the ways He is offering faith, hope, and love to bring back a bit of balance and order. He holds out His hand to stop the dizzy overwhelmed days that string together one after another after another and keeps them from overtaking us!

Sometimes, it just takes intentionally s-l-o-w-i-n-g  d-o-w-n... and sometimes it takes a shift in perspective and a willingness to see. 

Always - it takes a choice. We get to choose whether or not we will slow and see... whether or not we will shift and search... 

I shared last week how I had grabbed my camera and found so many wonders both big and small.  Many of them were flowers (because, of course! Easy Peasy, right?)  

Among the roses, yellow roses are my favorite. My rose bush bloomed like crazy earlier and then, thanks to all those triple digit days in a row, seemed to be done. However, it's gotten a second wind or a second summer and even though some of it looks dry and thirsty, and a little tired - new blooms are opening wide and it is blossoming yet again... the persistence of yellow and a perfume that is intoxicating if you simply slow your steps and inhale deep, even just passing by.

But I-- I stop and lean in close. I frame my shot and I am pleased. Beauty and Grace is captured even when the heavenly fragrance can't be. Small Wonders... gifts from Him to me that I could have just as easily walked right by.  Layers and layers, like petals, of blessings surround us all and He promises us that we will find whatever we are searching for.

I smell the flowers and look again at the photo as a smile spreads wide across my face. He is both here in the garden, and there in the picture and this makes me silly happy. Such a gift... and I will grab hold of this blessing and tuck it away as I move on.

He whispers it soft,

"Change your perspective... to bend and not break... to look upward to the sky from where your help comes from!" 

But honestly, my bossy list bosses me and I am already running late.

Next time, I think.  

Next time I find myself looking for wonder amidst a garden, I will shift and I will search...

And thank goodness I remember! I am in a garden, all in awe of wonders and I remember to bend and I see how they shout their praises to God.  I keep searching for new ways to see...

And there it is... 
There He is! 

As I bend and not break, I see in a new way and I I-spy the uniqueness of flowers that I walk passed all the time but I have never really seen them. Not like this... not from this angle or that angle.

A change in perspective can shed light on all kinds of beauty if we will but take the time.

Small wonders... small shifts... little ways that He comes to us and offers beauty and blessings. Lord, open my eyes.

***

I used to be fearful of bees. As in, even though I knew it was wrong, I would take flight... jerk and shift and run away. Wisdom told me to stand still... experience told me that they were more interested in the flowers than my perfume, and yet... I would flee.

There is a gift in searching for the small and leaning in to a bit of fear.  I decided awhile back to listen to wisdom and learn to trust. I now look for the bees and I love how detailed they are -  the fur and the translucent wings... these are things that I would have never counted as gifts when I was letting fear chase me away. I see their beauty now and it's amazing how that alone can chase away the fear.

I have come to enjoy watching them flutter about. They allow themselves to be led and they are secure in what they are doing... They may get distracted from time to time and they are for sure busy (-bees. Ya see what I did there?) But they are focused and at work, letting the wind give hints on where to go next. 

They move from flower to flower, buzzing about, doing exactly what they are created to do. They are so good at being bees! 

And I pray that that can be said of us... that we are so good at being us! 

It takes practice, it takes leaning in, it takes being led by the Wind, and it takes looking closely with eyes wide open to seek and to find. 

What small (or big) wonders are you finding lately? I'd love to hear!

P.S.  I'm linking up with these lovely writers:

The Community over at #SmallWonders 

Laura Boggess over at #ChasingTheBlueFlower

Holly Barrett for #TestimonyTuesday

Kelly Balarie for #RaRaLinkUp

Click to Tweet: "A change in perspective can shed light on all kinds of beauty if we will but take the time."

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