Doesn't it look like a positively beautiful day in Red Deer today?! Just looking at the brightness of the sun and how it lights up the evergreens and fresh-fallen snow makes me want to run outside and play. I love to walk in winter wonderlands of God's creation. Today looks like a perfect day for it.

It is indeed beautiful looking here today.

But I stepped outside and immediately froze anything exposed (and some things that were not).

Quickly, I ran back inside and re-evaluated my desire to be outdoors. Decision: today is a beautiful day to remain indoors and enjoy the sunshine from this side of the window. (And to blog.)

A lot of life is like that. Looks like something beautiful. Looks like this will be fun. Looks like this is a good idea. I must confess a terrible addiction (affliction?) to how a thing looks. My favorite cars always have to do with their sharp lines and colorful paint jobs. What clothes I wear used to be always about the appearance and never about the weather forecast. (I'm doing better with age. Age-related arthritis, that is.) Even my favorite sports team was largely adopted on the basis of what their uniform looks like. They look as good as ever in their orange, black and white. That is, until the puck drops and the game is played. They're in last place! They used to always be good but now they only look good.

I've learned (except with hockey teams) to pick less on the surface appearance of things and people. Behind every facade and under everyone's skin is where I find good. God made people in His image (minus the sinstains, of course) and his creation is awesome. Sometimes I have to look below the surface to see it but it's always there.

I hope people can appreciate me even if I look like a clown (maybe I should lose the outfit and makeup). I also hope they can appreciate me, the real me, even when I'm dressed to the sixteens (better than nines, I figure) and looking like a million.

Back to the beautiful day. Today is a beautiful day. Not because its sunny and bright or unbearablý cold (minus thirty-something with the wind). It's beautiful because God built it. If the sun never came up this morning (or the earth stopped rotating, I guess) what kind of a day would it be (besides dark)? If everything looked great but God withdrew the air, that would pretty much have sucked any enjoyment out of the day for me. If my heart stopped beating, my lungs stopped inhaling (or exhaling) or my eyes stopped blinking, how beautiful would the day seem to me? God has made today beautiful by building it and building me into it. What I see on the surface, what I choose to look at, is only skindeep.

Rats, I need to go. Outside into the cold.

That's okay. The wind only chills me to the bone. The Spirit is in my soul!

Thank you, Lord!

And the rest of you... have a beautiful day!