Faith Talk - Life in General - Uncategorized

The Handkerchief of the Lord: Finding Beauty in the Ordinary

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;

…I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we
may see and remark, and say Whose?

Walt Whitman, from “Song of Myself”

Small gifts, simple joys, everyday beauties that we often fail to notice. These are the handkerchiefs of God. These are the moments when we can choose to remember that we are loved, blessed, held by the gentle hand of the Almighty.

The way the afternoon light slants through the windowpane and catches on the gold-lettered spines of books atop the mantle.

The deep aubergine hue of elderberries steeping to make a sweet, nourishing syrup to fend off the cold and sicknesses of winter.

The brief glimpse of a diving waterfowl, its breast so white and back so brown, that makes us stop and ask, “What kind of duck was that?”

The infinitesimal detail of each crystalline snowflake that falls on a bitterly cold winter morning.

For these, and so many more blessings of daily life in the world, we thank you, Lord, God of both the small and great. May we never fail to stop, to notice, to breathe, to pray, to praise You for the beauty in the ordinary. Amen.

O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.

Psalm 104:34

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