Unexpected Beauty

“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”Luke 11:28 

Lately I’ve been looking for the blessing of unexpected beauty. A few weeks ago, a surprise blessing came by way of Shanghai baby bok choy! Having never cooked with bok choy before, it was hard to know what to expect. Imagine my delight in discovering that when you cut off the stalks, your reward is a perfectly rose shaped end. You would never know what was inside unless you explored the bok choy. It was also delicious so a double blessing in my book!  

Another place we can find unexpected beauty is in the Bible. The Bible whether in book form, tablet, or online doesn’t come in a beautiful package. It can be intimidating and hard to know what to expect. But we have to explore it to be blessed by the beauty! Scripture gives us everything we need to live in faith, hope, and love.  

The Psalms are a delightful way to start engaging Scripture as they address our everyday feelings and situations like joy and despair, hope and doubt, faith and unbelief, rejoicing and anger, and any other emotion you can imagine in life and death. I invite you to discover unexpected beauty in the Psalms with me by reading a Psalm a day. In the testimony of the Psalms, “For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.” Psalm 33:4 and “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.” Psalm 119:114.  

My favorite resource is “The One Year Book of Psalms” by Petersen & Petersen which has a Psalm a day with a brief and enlightening devotion. So please join me in reading a Psalm a day! Be surprised and blessed by the beauty of God’s timeless word which addresses our present situations with a word of peace and wisdom just when we need it.  

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Psalm 119:105

Pastor Andrea