eternal views

I have recently been able to enter the other apartments in our building due to new friendships that have formed and a very sociable toddler who wanders around in our building until a friendly neighbor opens the door (side note: I was wandering with her!). As I have been in their homes I have noticed that while we all have a similar apartment layout, the view out their sliding doors are significantly better than ours. They can see the pond with the fountain, the ducks with their ducklings, the changing colors of fall trees... it really is a beautiful scene of God's beauty in the middle of a busy northwest suburb of Chicago.

If you look out our sliding door you can see... a parking lot. Not just a parking lot, but all the commotion of dump trucks, mailmen, car alarms, construction, and landscaping that comes along with a "come and go" atmosphere. I must admit that I have become pretty bitter at this view. Not only because it is significantly worse than my neighbors, but because all of these noises do not seem to soothe a toddler to sleep at nap time. But, during a recent nap time I was looking out our sliding door and God reminded me of something: what God sees as good and beautiful is not always what the world sees as good and beautiful.

My husband and I have connected with many people in the parking lot right outside our apartment. As much as the noises of a come and go atmosphere bother me, it also provides an easy way to meet people. Often it is a simple conversation as they are off to work or headed home for the day. Yet, through those connections the Lord has given me the opportunity to meet with and teach the Bible weekly to my neighbors... this is really something that I thought was impossible in a culture increasingly hostile to God. But God has done the impossible. He has literally and figuratively opened doors for us to share the love and truth about Jesus through our less than mediocre window view. Less than mediocre becomes glorious. Bitterness becomes joy. Bothersome becomes beautiful. I have seen the Glory of God through these doors more than ever before in my life. To the world this may be a sub-par apartment view, but to me it carries everlasting treasure. The world will see beautiful views that wither, but beautiful views of the Lord working will last forever. And so I become immensely thankful for the eternal beauty God has given me right outside my sliding door.


"Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness (of JESUS) delivers from death." Proverbs 10:2

"That though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever; but you, O LORD, are on high forever."  Psalm 92:7-8

" And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him." Acts 17:26 -27a

"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26