Have you ever felt like what you needed more than anything was an unsolicited and sincere act of kindness? For someone to enter your life unbidden and and offer a kind word or deed? I had a few days recently of pressures at work, weirdness at home, and I was desperate for some kindness.
A few days later we were sitting on the porch enjoying a late summer evening in the Twelve Acre Woods. The evening was warm and there was the look of rain in the west. Then the clouds rolled in and a shower cooled things down a bit. After the rain passed, I stepped off the porch into the yard and saw the most spectacular rainbow I’ve seen in a long time. It filled the eastern sky with color. As I stood there taking it in, and trying, unsuccessfully, to capture an adequate photo, I realized this was the kindness I needed. In that moment, God gave me the thing my heart most needed – an act of kindness, unsolicited and sincere.
After several years of living at the Twelve Acre Woods, I have become convinced that the beauty of creation is God’s kindness towards us. Seeing the flowers change with the season. Families of deer truly capture my attention. I love getting up early enough to see the sunrise – each one uniquely beautiful. Each one uniquely crafted by the God of the Heavens. As much as I love these things for themselves, I love them even more knowing that God created them because he loves them, too!
What I had in mind a couple of weeks back was a friend showing up at my desk with a cup of coffee, or the kids volunteering to do the dishes. And that would have been nice and would have brought a measure of relief and joy. But seeing that rainbow – so unexpected and uncommon – was so much more. God could have created any world He wanted, but in his kindness to us, he chose to create a world of beauty. The beauty has been corrupted by evil, to be sure, but glimpses of the Eden He intended are there for any eyes willing to see them. I would have enjoyed a coffee with a friend. But then I would have gone back to my desk. Here I am, weeks later, remembering that rainbow. And those wildflowers. And that sunrise.
The kindness of creation and the beauty of nature is not merely that they are beautiful. It’s that they represent God’s heart towards us. They are His reminder to us that this world is not all there is. They are indicators that we are not alone. He is with us. While I was longing for kindness, what my heart needed was not a cheap and fleeting substitute, but a reminder of God’s overwhelming goodness towards me. C.S. Lewis remarked,
It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
The sight of that rainbow a few weeks back brought to mind a song by Rich Mullins, Here In America. There’s a line in the song – “There’s so much beauty around us, for just two eyes to see. I’m home anywhere, if you are where I am.” As I stood there gazing at the beauty of God’s world, it dawned on my weary soul that this beauty represented God’s presence. And His presence is the true kindness.