Most likely you went on holidays this past summer. When did your holidays begin? Was it when you threw the last bag in the car and your wife checked to see if the stove and the iron were off for the third time or was it when you got to where you were going?

I and the family have just recently returned from holidaying in Nova Scotia. We went to visit some dear friends and stayed at their trailer. (Peter and Debbie et al, you guys rock!) For me the holidays started as soon as the car was moving. Actually, if truth be told , it started as soon as I got out of Toronto traffic. It is hard to be in the holiday state of mind when you are thinking thoughts about the guy who just cut you off that will require some heavy repenting!

For my kids, though, as good as they were, and as much as they slept, they really didn’t enjoy the travelling part as much as I. Don’t get me wrong. They are amazing travellers. Never once have they uttered those fateful words: “Are we there yet?” But there was the occasional question about where we were as they moaned and snored and moved in and out of consciousness.

Part of the enjoyment of this trip for me was the fact that we went to Nova Scotia via the States. Having lived in the Maritimes for twelve years , this particular trip through upper New York State, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, not to mention New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is one of my absolute favourite drives. There is so much variety!

This time around, though, it was the first time I took this route as an OAP (Obsessed Amateur Photographer). Thus most of my travel conversation had something to do with all the great shots I was missing along the way. I wonder if that had anything to do with my kids lack of enjoyment? Nah! Still, after a while I sensed that some in the van were getting tired of me pointing and sighing and mumbling, so I consolidated my comments into one word: “click.” Every time I went by something that I’d have loved to have stopped and take a picture of, I would, in wistful tones, say “click”. In some places my click counter was keeping time with the kilometre clicks on my odometer!

This was my way of letting the rest of the people in the car know that I was sacrificing prime artistic opportunities for their travelling sanity. I know, I know, you are impressed. I am just that kind of a sacrificial dad and father. I live to make my family happy. More to the point, Sheila also has keys to the car and I was afraid of being left behind with nothing left but my art and my thumb to keep me company.

To be fair, the rest of the van sacrificed some. There were a few times when I was actually allowed to stop to stretch and click. But, alas, those times were not enough to keep me from longing for all those could have been, but never were shots. Through the eyes of a salivating snap shooter I realized that there were absolutely hundreds of glimpses of beauty and life that I had never seen before. Some were spotted passing an intersecting road or through a clearing in the trees, or off in the distance. Some places could never be photographed, at least in the way I was travelling, because the roads were too busy, or there was nowhere to pull off. Some of these sites are most likely enjoyed by those who live near them, but some of them, I bet, are driven past and never noticed or appreciated by anybody. Oasis unnoticed. Bits of beauty just beyond the road that lies between points “A” and “B”.

This realization made me think about beauty from a different angle. Maybe it is just that I am more self-centred than most but, in the past when I’ve thought about the beauty of creation, I have thought about it in terms of my (and your) enjoyment. God put all this beauty in the world for us to enjoy and explore. It’s all about us! I still believe this to a certain extent. After all, God wants us to experience the beauty of His creation and then glorify His Name, but there is more to this beauty of creation thing that just us.

Beauty is everywhere, even places we can’t see. It’s in galaxies that can’t be seen even with the hubble telescope. It’s in things too small to be seen by the human eye. Beauty can be found on the highest of mountains and the deepest of seas–places none of us will ever visit. What’s the point? The point must be that beauty is in all of these places because God can’t help but create beauty. To put it another way, what God creates is beautiful by the very fact that God created it. Sure beauty is here for us to enjoy, but more than that, beauty is here because God is here.

Questions to ponder:

1. If your life isn’t beautiful right now, why is that? How much attention are you giving to God’s recreation of your life?

2. Could it be that there is more beauty in your life right now than you have noticed? Maybe you need to slow down and look for those intersections and clearings? Maybe you’re not looking to capture it? Everyone has more beauty in their life than they are noticing.

3. Beauty comes in many shapes and sizes. Maybe you can’t focus on it because you are too close to see the whole picture, or maybe you aren’t close enough to see all the beautiful detail. Either way, I am sure that God has created beauty in your life, now go find it, enjoy it and share it with others!

It’s summertime–the season of daydreams and slipstreams. In the summer you don’t have to finish your thoughts. Thoughts are allowed to wobble and shimmer like the heat waves above a fresh patch of asphalt. So in the spirit of summer, let me throw a few random thoughts your way. None of these musings are to be considered perceptive, or even insightful, they are merely summer notions–ice cream ideas–toes in the water ponderings.

A couple of weeks ago I was at a wedding. As a pastor, if there are weddings, I tend to be a part of them. Me and weddings don’t get along! I love the fact that a man and a woman fall in love and want to live the rest of their lives together. I love the God-created mystery of two becoming one flesh but the actual stuff that surrounds weddings leave me rather cold. In my opinion, the stress and planning and showers and pattern picking and all the rest of the wedding refuse very nearly sucks the joy out of the occasion. Once in a long while, the couple gets through the ordeal relatively (note the double meaning) unscathed, but that is a rare and beautiful thing. Thankfully, this last wedding was very much like that.

But, what I really find interesting with this particular wedding was what happened at the wedding reception. I felt like an anthropologist discovering a new shift in the social fabric. This shift had to do with the traditional throwing of the bride’s bouquet. The loosely assembled female unattacheds, instead of reaching for the prize, did all they could to dodge the flowers. Without exception the flowers were treated like some kind of plague-encrusted manifestation of Beelzebub. Young ladies literally jumped out of the way. It was surreal to say the least! What does all this mean? I am not completely sure, but it made me laugh nervously and look the other way. Marriage, it seems, has fallen on hard times, or maybe it is just the human heart. Oddly, the world seems a little more cynical and lonely after that display.

Recently our family received a bobble head that now adorns the dashboard of our van. At any moment, when the urge strikes me, I proceed to flick the nose on our bobble Goofy and watch his head go up and down. The satisfaction this action brings to my soul is far more substantial than I would have imagined. I now know that there is a great power behind the bobble. Power to sooth. Power to relieve stress. Power to bring joy – even in a traffic jam! POWER!

It seems to me that if we genetically altered the human race to incorporate bobble head movement we would be far better off. How can you be mad at anyone whose head is bobbling? How can anyone whose head is bobbling be mad? Mark my words, the bobble head is the end to all wars! In the very least, wouldn’t we all profit from being a bit more flexible?

Right now I am on holidays. Doing some work around the house, spending time with my family. Thus far the holidays have been filled with variety and relaxation, not to mention physical work and some serious headway on my long list of home procrastinations. Often my life is distracted with the list of things I can’t do anything about. Sometimes I am numbed by my inabilities, so it’s a wonderful thing to be able to focus on a few things that I can fix and then cross them off my list. I need to work on spending more time on the fixable. Small accomplishments lead to bigger hopes. Small steps lead to greater faith.