A Fresh View – February 25, 2001
Our birth is the beginning as we slip brand new into this world of fresh possibilities.
How wonderful it would be to keep that first sparkle and bloom of life with us—to always see with a child’s eye. But familiarity can blind us to everyday beauty. Precious things can drift into the commonplace. How does this happen? Maybe it’s a discontent with what we have as we yearn for what we don’t have. Maybe it’s too much work with too little satisfaction. Maybe it’s a preoccupation with things that don’t really mean a lot. Describing a neighbor who was lost in a round of grumbling and complaining, a man explained, “He forgot he was ever born.”
We don’t need to put enjoyment and fulfillment on a shelf. No matter our age, we can begin again to “walk in newness of life.”1 Stepping out of our routines can freshen our view of the world and help us find treasure in the commonplace. It might be as simple as waking up a little earlier in the morning, or walking instead of riding, or going barefoot instead of wearing shoes.
A wise man wrote: “Is it not marvelous how far afield some of us are willing to travel in pursuit of that beauty which we leave behind us at home?. . .Things grow old and stale, not because they are old, but because we cease to see them . . . a tree at our gate
. . . a flower in our dooryard.”2
A little more gratitude for what we have—a little more appreciation for the simple, wholesome things of life—will keep the world fresh and wonderful.
Program #3732
1. Romans 6:4.
2. David Grayson, Adventures in Friendship (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1910), 145.