Beauty in March

March is always a dreadful month. The yearly sales tax payment for my little home business, Whizbang Books, is due in March. And, seeing as April 15 is not too far away, I always get my income tax figures together in March.

I am not a good bookkeeper through the year. I do not keep an organized record of things like I should. But I do save every business receipt. Then, in March, I sort it all out and figure what I spent and what I made. I loath this yearly compiling of numbers. It takes hours of my time. Time is one of the most precious things in life. There is so much more I would rather be doing with my time. But I am a slave to receipts, and cancelled checks, and thoughts of IRS agents, and concerns about money. That is the reason, and the only reason, why March is a dreadful month.

The good news is, as of today, I am free of that nasty bookkeeping task. Today I took my numbers to a professional tax man. He can plug them into the appropriate forms and charge me a couple hundred bucks. Oh, what a dreadful month. I could never be a tax man. It would be a dreadful life for me. I really don’t like numbers (I’m more partial to words).

But that is behind me. Now I’m free to enjoy March in all its glory. We had an ice storm here a couple days ago. It wasn’t bad enough to do a lot of damage. It was a perfect ice storm. The tree branches are coated with a layer of ice, maybe 1/4” thick. When the sun came out, the ice sparkled like crystal. It was awesome to behold. The picture above doesn’t really capture the beauty of the real-world picture as I would like it to. No photograph can do that.

What is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?

That is something I was thinking about a few days before the ice storm came. I pondered and decided that, if I had to limit it to the three most beautiful things I have ever seen in this world, they would be:

1. Summer sunsets, viewed from my garden.
2. Loving smiles.
3. Newborn children (my own especially).

As I thought about those things, and the many other contenders for “most beautiful” (which would certainly include ice-covered trees glistening in the sun), I realized that none of them were man-made. They are all, every single one of them, part of God’s creation, even loving smiles. After all, we are made in God's image, and God is the author of love.

Sometimes the beauty found in the natural world is soft and gentle, like a pleasant summer rain, or a gurgling brook. At other times, as with a howling storm or a raging torrent, the beauty is fierce and frightening. But it is all compellingly beautiful to behold.

God’s creation, the natural world all around us, is a reflection of Him. And it came to my mind that the Bible speaks of the “beauty of His holiness.”

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto His name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. 1 Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 29:2

Then I thought that if, in this sin-saturated and fallen world, the beauty of God’s creation shines through so clearly and beautifully, and it is, in fact, the only true beauty there is, then what must the actual beauty of God’s holiness be like? What will eternity in His presence be like? What will heaven be like?

Those questions are beyond my ability to comprehend. But the thought of such things fills me with a yearning.

One thing I’m quite certain about... there will be no taxes in heaven.

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Here is a picture of the gully and creek that runs behind my house.



This next picture was taken from the road in front of my house, looking down and across the valley to the west. This is where, soon, I will watch the beautiful summer sunsets. You will notice there is one thing in the picture that is out of place. Telephone poles are not beautiful. I rather doubt there will be telephone poles in heaven.