Beauty and the Beast

As we left church yesterday morning, my eye was drawn to the beautiful fall colors across the street. The bright orange blazed against the clear blue sky.

If I honed in just on the fall colors and how they complemented the red brick facade of the old Stafford High School, I could forget the ugliness of a March fire for just a little bit. I could ignore the fence and the sign: "POSTED. No trespassing. Keep out" from a place that had been designed to welcome the community's children for so many years.

I could look past the rubble to beautiful leaves against a clear blue sky. In all the world's ugliness, it's medicine for the soul to focus on the good and the beautiful.

Then, as if I needed more confirmation, this email devotional from Guideposts appeared in my inbox this morning:

A Time to Think

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore.
There is always something to make you wonder
 in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.
 –Albert Schweitzer, theologian and medical doctor

A Time to Act

Take time today to nourish your soul with beauty and silence.

A Time to Pray

Lord, let me see Your beauty in the beautiful things You have made.

I think it's a good prayer for the week.

If you are a Stafford High graduate and want a brick from the old school, Dale Hearn has procured a pallet of them and is selling them for $5 a brick (more for shipping). Call him at 620-546-4535,  first come, first served.