I love this saying. Now, before you start feeling really sorry for me (or really offended), let me clarify: there wasn’t much that was ugly about today. The very beginning of the day was rough, because I’m still not sleeping well and I had to be up early enough to feed myself and Koski, go over my sermon, get dressed and get to the church for 9am. For a non-morning person who hasn’t been sleeping well, that’s a lot to deal with before 9am.

But the day only went up from there – a great time of study with our Shepherding group, a great worship service, a wonderful celebration of my 1yr anniversary with St. Andrew’s, a great couple of meetings after all that. It was a busy day, but a really good day.

Still, if you had to ask me to find the beauty in this day, while I would definitely acknowledge all of that, none of that would be what I would talk about. Instead, I would tell you about this moment, after all of that had been accomplished, when Koski and I were just coming home from our walk. We were walking up the sidewalk toward my house, and the sun struck me in my eyes, and I had to shut them. Then I took one more step and I realized I could open my eyes again, because I was standing in a shadow. I opened them and saw how the sun was streaming around the trunk of the maple tree in my front yard, and I just stood there for a moment…shocked by the beauty of the sunlight.

Sometimes beauty is to be found in the smallest moments. Sometimes it is hard to find on an ugly day. Sometimes it abounds in the kindness of others and the world that God has created.

Wherever beauty is to be found – I want to encourage you (and me!) to take the time to find it. Because any day in which you find beauty, will be a day that was not wasted.