Sometimes, the extraordinary appears in the most unexpected places. Take my back yard, for instance.
I was out mowing my quarter-acre piece-of-paradise the other evening when I looked briefly to the sky, and noticed a remarkable play of light and cloud to the west – a pattern unlike any I’d ever seen take shape in these otherwise familiar surroundings.
Reason enough to pause…and pay attention…
And just yesterday, my beloved snapped a shot of a fungal fairy ring that had sprung up overnight at the retreat center where she works.
Our playful God…’doing it again’…
Which got me thinking: When the unusual breaks through and adds a bit of spectacle to the routine, it can seem like a little love letter from God.
You notice the new shapes, sure.
But it’s also a chance to see the well-known scenery with a fresh set of eyes – a chance to marvel in the vigor of the weeds that threaten to overrun the landscaping; or to appreciate the miracle in the maples that provide their welcome patches of shade, summer after summer.
The weeds may be winning…
These bursts of backyard beauty reminded me of an intriguing insight I’d come across recently from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton:
Because children have abounding vitality…therefore, they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again”; and the grown-up does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.
It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that God has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we are.
What a joy God provides when our attention is caught by something new in our daily drudgery: A reminder from the Holy One, perhaps, that we have—each of us—a standing invitation to return to the Garden…and the ‘monotony’ of routine days, spent in the sure knowledge that we remain God’s beloved children.
A little beauty…back for a second round of blossoms this season…
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy One.
IHS
With Us Still 
It is a real GIFT to see God in all things. . . I know I don’t . . . but sometimes I think that makes it more special when your realize HIS presence in simple things. . . especially a cloud in the sky
Yup: in all things…and in all circumstances / situations, too. As a wise person once said: God is present, all is well. 😉