My Something Beautiful

So, this building stands out as probably the most boring in Chicago....but, at the base of it:

Are the most beautiful gardens! It was amazing! I think the architect and the landscape architect got together to do this on purpose....to draw the eye down from the useful but bland building, to the amazing scenery below! And I also thought it appropriate for this post.

This is a map of Chicago on the top of a sewer cover! It was really neat!

Again today I feel compelled to discuss the lyrics of a song. Some of you may know this song as the one I plan to walk down the aisle to: "Something Beautiful" by the Newsboys. ;)

However, today I had the pleasure of listening to it as I flew over the upper midwest, over a layer of clouds. You know those cloudy days where everything is gray. All of the sudden, in the plane, we broke through the gray to where the clouds were white and shining: reflecting the sun in a way that makes you think of the purest tone of white that you'll ever see! They rolled below, while we skimmed them, like flying over a hilly mystery land. I wanted to jump out of the plane, knowing in my head that I would fall through but in my heart that the clouds would catch me.

As beautiful of the "artistic representation of God" countdown, we traveled over clouds that rose up like coral under a sea of thinner clouds. I wish I could have had someone with me to share the wonder with.

However, I did have the Newsboys. And as I watched the clouds and pondered their beauty, I heard the lyrics to this song, and it seemed to speak to me at this time of my life.

"I want to start it over. I want to start again. I want a new beginning. One without an end. I feel it inside, calling out to me."

What a way to start the song! The chance to begin again! To do everything right! No matter when we believe, we will always stumble and err. But there's always the chance to start again. And that's what we want! We want to be as white as those clouds! As beautiful! That's true beauty!

"It's the voice that whispers my name. It's the kiss without any shame. Something beautiful. Like the song that stirs in my head. Singing love will take us where. Something's beautiful."

The voice whispering to us. The songs in our heads. God is calling us to beauty in Him...he's whispering, or, in my case, singing it to me. Loud and clear. Telling us that it's what we want.

"It's the child on her wedding day. It's the daddy who gives her away. Something beautiful. When we laugh so hard we cry. All the love between you and I. Something beautiful."

I see this verse as about friendship. The connections we make that we don't want to give up. How we have inside jokes and histories together. Times that we will never forget. How I can sit and pick out hundreds of different "best days ever!" And they were all made that way by the people I love! So here I am, trying to stay connected to my friends, given a chance to start anew in other areas of my life. This chance is beautiful!

And you know what else is beautiful? The techno music. The crescendos! The way the music swells and grows and stops dramatically...oh! What a song!

And I would be remiss if I didn't say that I think of Megan when I hear it now, because it makes her think of me, which makes me think of her thinking of me. Does that even make sense?