A Message From an Angel
The season of Advent, which begins today, is filled with angels. Christians everywhere will recall the angel Gabriel announcing Jesus’ birth to Mary and how a chorus of angels sang the night Christ was born. This past week I had a message from an Angel too. Before you conclude I’ve lost it, Angel is the name of one of my church members. She and her family moved to southeast Kentucky last year from Michigan. Recently I sent Angel and her husband some of the pictures I took in Michigan last month. In an e-mail she responded to them by saying, “You have an amazing gift in capturing beauty that so many of us walk by during the hustle of life. When I stop and think about it I’m not sure that what we are hustling to is more important than what we are missing. In general it isn’t! I haven’t seen my laundry go anywhere when I stop to smell the roses or watch the kids have 10 more minutes of fun.”
I appreciated Angel’s kind words about my photography but was even more moved by the words that followed. Often we really do miss out on “seeing Creation” because of “the hustle of life.” We don’t think we have time to pay attention to the wonders of God’s Creation around us. In my opinion, if we are too busy to do this we are just too busy. Angel’s right, a lot of the things we think are so urgent really aren’t.
The Advent season is for many of us the busiest time of the year. There are so many demands on our time and energy during this season. I hope in all the hustle of buying and receiving gifts these coming weeks you will not fail to take notice of some of the delightful gifts God has given us in the world of His Creation.
–Chuck
(I took the picture of maple leaves in snow shown above last month in Michigan.)