Different Eyes

I was out on some errands this morning and stopped by my sister’s place to visit and finish my coffee.  I thought she might be in the yard working with her garden, and I was correct in that assumption.  She was doing some digging and pruning of garden plants.

It was windy, but not yet uncomfortably hot when I arrived.  She finished what she was doing and we sat in the back yard swing and visited for awhile.  One of the things she did before we sat down was fill the bird feeders she has in the yard.  She has a couple of seed feeders as well as a suet feeder and bird bath.  They had been empty for a day or two, but when she refilled them, it didn’t take long for the word to get around the bird neighborhood that goodies were once again there for the taking.

Within just a few minutes, there were three or four birds, a dove, a finch, and a couple of sparrows that were at the feeders.  In a few more minutes, more doves and sparrows found their way there along with some starlings, a blue jay, and a brownish bird that I couldn’t identify.  The squirrels also made appearances, tightrope walking on the fence tops and power lines to get there.

Her yard is good for critters.  She has no dog and the yard is fenced.  She has a family of rabbits under her shed, and I’m sure other critters find their way into her yard from time to time, especially at night.  The garden lends itself for animal thieves to make off with tender shoots, blooms, or produce.  She feeds the birds.  There is shade, water, and a measure of protection.  Life is good for the birds and animals in that back yard.  I enjoyed sitting and visiting, watching the birds and squirrels at the feeders.  When it got warmer and I had things to do, I excused myself and left.

This is the same house where I go from time to time to sit on her screened-in porch.  It’s shaded there, and when the breeze blows just right, it’s a great place to spend the noon hour, or an evening time.

Sis thinks sometimes that her house, because it is older and is showing its age, isn’t what it ought to be.  That may be, but there are many folks in this world who would give their eye teeth for a screened-in shady porch, a back yard full of critters, and tall, mature shade trees that keep out the summer sun.  Functionality and charm are in the eye of the beholder, and this beholder believes the house has a charm that is seldom matched in the newer, suburban neighborhoods and upscale areas of town.

For God, (you just knew I would have a spiritual application, didn’t you) beauty is in the eye of the beholder as well.  Whereas we know we are sinful, failing creatures, if we are accounted as His children, He looks at us (beholds us) through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, and sees only perfection and beauty.  He accounts us as righteous, just as he did Abraham, because we believe.

So, next time you drive by or see an older house that may have some quirks and foibles, look at it with different eyes.  Look for the charm and beauty.  And think of God and His view of us through the lens of the blood of His Son.