Seeing Past

A week of seeing the past the (supposed) ugly to the beautiful. Because all His gifts are good gifts... if we have see past and through...

ugly: rusting, dented lawn tractor

beautiful: faithful workhorse that's cut our grass for the last twelve years

ugly: hole in a smile

beautiful: first lost tooth! "I'm getting bigger!"

ugly: greasy rag

beautiful: shop cloth working hard

ugly: rust and flaking paint

beautiful: little girl's very own bike!

ugly: bent wheel
beautiful: her wheels


ugly: shop floor in disarray, pick-up truck disassembled
beautiful: he's getting it done


ugly: nail in the dirt
beautiful: a reminder of incomprehensible love


ugly: angulated break of index finger on right hand,

requiring surgery to open finger and insert pin
beautiful: he's still got a finger!
(The fan blades in the barn were 24 inches long,
flying round at 750 rpms.)

ugly: Dad's hands "Look at mine next to your's, Levi. All beat up and old."

beautiful: Dad's hands. All beat up and old,worn well.

"Those who admit the truth of what I have said

know, I am sure,
why we are bound to love God.

But if unbelievers will not grant it,
their ingratitude is at once confounded by His innumerable benefits,
lavished on our race, and plainly discerned by the senses.

Who is it that gives food to all flesh,
light to every eye,
air to all that breathe?"

~Bernard of Clairvaux