A few days ago, I was in the middle of what I call my “Co-Run” – Costco, Petco – when I was nearly stopped in my tracks by the beauty that lie ahead of me.  The breathtaking sight that I beheld was the result of a foggy morning and what that moisture had done to a slew of little trees dotting the landscape of this particular shopping area.

This blog idea popped into my head immediately and my plan was to get the handful of canine/feline items I needed and then snap a picture of this awesome beauty straight from the hand of God.

For those of you who live in the Des Moines metro area, you know that this picture above is not from that shopping center!  Nope.  By the time I got back to my car, I had completely forgotten about my plan to capture God’s handiwork.

Thank goodness there are free images that can fill in for my absent-mindedness.

Take a moment to soak in the beauty of this snowy wonderland image. Of course, pictures can’t do just to the real thing, so if you live in these hinterlands, I know you likely experienced what I saw that foggy morning.  I hope it was awe-inspiring for you as well – and you knew whom to thank for it!

Living in this cold climate means we are often met with beautiful vistas such as this.  But alas, they are necessarily accompanied by freezing temperatures, and possibly dangerous, icy roads.  What can you do?  We take the good with the bad.

But on this morning, an additional thought crossed my mind and I’d like to share this musing with you all.

I don’t typically put icy pictures in my view of the new heaven and new earth that God promises to us after Jesus’ return.  I’m picturing a stroll through a place akin to the original Garden of Eden.  Lots of flowers, my favorite animals, and probably about 75 degrees and sunny.  My definition of perfection, no doubt.

So I had a moment of sadness when I thought about this beautiful scene, and others like it,  being absent from that perfection.  And then this thought – why couldn’t God include these gorgeous winter-scapes along with the flowers and the 75 degree weather?

Well, of course he can!

I have no idea if that’s part of his master plan for our eternal home, and we do have to be careful not to land too solidly on what we want this to be like.  But I do believe God endowed us with imaginations and that’s what took me down this path.

What’s really important here isn’t the idea of God providing winter beauty in the middle of summer weather.  It’s allowing our minds and imaginations to be stretched as we think about the limitless character of God, and his desire to bless his children.

The thought of icy trees next to a garden full of lilies and roses and daisies brought a smile to my heart, and an appreciation for the boundless, immeasurable grace and mercy of God.

What I want is to be constantly reminded of that, in whatever way God chooses to touch my heart.  His creation is his stamp on this world, and if our eyes are open to that, we can and will see his handiwork everywhere.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Psalm 19:1