In Search of Beauty - Ranch Style

The world has been consumed with the coronavirus for weeks and things have reached a frenzied pace. It's all we hear about on TV and there was one day when my phone seemed to explode each and every hour with alerts . So take a deep breath and let's escape the madness. Join me as we do a little exploring on the ranch, in search of hidden beauty.

A lot of the ranch looks like this.

Grazing land.

However, there's a good bit that looks like this.

 Thick and dense. Chaotic.

One day, hubby was driving along one of the trails and spotted a dogwood tree in bloom. Except, you could only see the top of it. Getting to it was another story. So, we went on a search. 

The underbrush was thick and brambles kept catching on my clothes as I picked my way through, ducking under low-hanging limbs. Then there was this.

Ha! Guess which one of us was smart enough to wear her rubber boots? Thanks to this creek bed, I no longer had to dodge the brambles. I was almost there. See the skinny tree trunk in the foreground on the left? That's a dogwood tree. 

But where are the blooms we saw?

I found one scraggly one dangling from a skimpy little branch.

Then I looked up.

 They're a little hard to see, backdropped by the sky.

But they're there. Hundreds of them.

All that beauty, hidden in the chaos of the woods. Not so different from life right now. Sometimes the beauty of life gets buried deep in the thorns, and it's difficult to see. But the beauty is still there, waiting to be discovered.

Yes, even in the chaos swirling around us now, there's beauty to be found. We can even be that beauty. A bright spot in the life of someone who feels as though they're surrounded by darkness. Do you know someone who's health could be compromised by a trip to the grocery store? Offer to go for them. Speak kindly to those who are frantic around you. Be patient and smile. Sometimes, a little goes a long way.

Remember, God's got this. And He's got you. Be beauty in the chaos.

Three time Carol Award finalist Mindy Obenhaus is passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. She lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, one sassy pup, countless cattle, deer and the occasional coyote, mountain lion or snake. When she's not writing, she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, cooking and watching copious amounts of the Hallmark Channel. Learn more at mindyobenhaus.com.