Beauty is Resilient

Two things I cannot fathom: The extent of pain and suffering and the resilience of beauty.
 
      The Boston marathon victims were on my mind as I went on my run today. Not because I thought it could have been me injured there in the Boston bombing. No, running the Boston marathon has never crossed my mind. But the fact that tragedy can strike anyone, anytime, anywhere for no reason at all was heavily on my mind. As I continued to run I realized that I was running on streets once occupied by Nazi soldiers and that the tragedy of the Boston marathon is just a drop in the bucket, no, in the ocean of human tragedies. When I tried to fathom all of this it was too much for me. I cannot even comprehend the small extent of human suffering I have witnessed through caregiving, so I obviously cannot even wrap my head around the massive extent of human suffering that has occurred and still exists in the world today.
         I continued to run and it was then that I began to marvel at the beauty of the pale green buds and the wispy blossoms on the tress and the brilliance of the yellow daffodils. My heart lightened as I heard the birds singing and watched a child skip alongside her mother.
      I realized that beauty is resilient. Beauty remains despite history's track record of pain, horror, and tragedy. It pokes out like flowers in spring in spite of all things evil. It speaks of hope, of a return to things as they were created to be. Beauty reminds us that in the end the Creator of everything good and beautiful wins. Marvel in the beautiful things, find hope in the beautiful things, let the beautiful things point to the One who can heal and restore what is broken and hurt.