Cultivate the small beauty

I have special admiration toward a person who can take almost useless things, i.e. things which look  cannot be improved and easier to just be abandoned, yet he or she treated it in such a way that it looks so beautiful and valuable.

When I think of this, what comes into my minds are the monastics who turn the deserts and places which are so often unfavorable to the world, yet with their loving and God-trusting hands, they turn   the surrounding becomes such splendid places not only outwardly but they also imbue the inner beauty even to the space in which they live to constantly praise and adore Christ. 

That always amazed me! When God pours out His grace to His beloved men and women, there always be the radiating beauty, the spreading fragrance. Somehow it reminds me of the story of Abraham whom in his humility and trust in God let his nephew Lot to choose the best for himself and accept whatever left out of it as a blessing for the Lord. Intriguing to see how the Lord pleased and indeed bless him.

True Christians from time to time have to deal with terrible time of persecution externally. It is their clinging to the God of Beauty, Creator and Giver of Everything Good which sustains them and enables them to declare and witness the unwavering truth and to glow such beauty of the Lord reflected on them. Not only externally, internally every Christian is at war with passions and deformation of innate beauty which the Lord bestows from the beginning. It surely takes such mysterious synergy of the grace of the Lord and totality of the love from the person toward the Lord for the transformation to take place.

Now, it's clear to me that it is the disposition of the heart which forms our inner life and that inner life shapes and transform our surrounding. Because love and inner peace transmit and sanctifies the ones who gaze upon it. It is a way better to have rather little materials sufficiently  filled with love, care and diligence rather than seeking and wanting for more but at the cost our soul becomes so burdened and whitered away. 

In the struggle with the passions, many times we prefer things rather than God. Achievements, acknowledgements, sudden urge of gratifications really tempts us and readily grasps our attention.

O Lord, Merciful Lord, look now upon the weakness and powerless of Thy servant! How as the deer pants for the water we thirst of You. Lord, save us from our passions. Transform us in Your Love and Beauty so that this small flame of love that we have for You can be brightened and sustained amidst the attacks of the arrows of pernicious passions. Be Thou our vision, our refuge and our defender O Lord for this heart of ours is Yours! Amen!