it seems as if we are always looking to add a little glitz, a little glamour or glitter, some sparkle or shimmer or shine, some beautiful, bedazzling blitz of blinding bling to our everyday world and to everything in it, in order to transform it into something new and exciting and wonderful.  This morning I discovered the secret of the bling as it were, as I walked my ordinary morning walk just like any other mundane Monday morning.  I literally walked into a world of stunning beauty, but it took a dead brown leaf to open my eyes, before I could behold what surrounded me.

I almost stepped on this leaf in my path, a large deep brown, golden maple leaf lying face down on the ground.  Every vein was etched in glistening, sparkling moving points of light, giving depth and definition to this ordinary leaf making it an object of unspeakable beauty just as it was.  (here’s where a picture would truly be worth a thousand words, wish I had one to share with you, dear readers)

It was then I began to notice more leaves as I continued my walk, some on the path, most off to the sides covering the grass in various forms and formations.  But they all sparkled and shone as if they were outlined in dazzling diamonds, diamonds which were reflecting the early morning sunlight in all its’ glory.  God had bedazzled the world while I slept.

It seems we add glitter to a lot of things, especially around Christmas time.  If we want to make something stand out, make it more appealing, we add some glitter. (after all, glitter is to a decorator what spices are to a cook, namely the secret ingredient)  Well, God certainly knows the secret of the bling.  While the world is dark and sleeping He frosts everything; housetops, tree branches, grass, leaves, nothing is left untouched. Then God lets the light reveal His handiwork, slowly, breathtakingly, stunningly, with the rising of the sun we behold a world bedazzled by a trillion twinkling lights, everywhere we look.  This morning I saw that, everywhere I looked, everything shimmered as though covered with glittering diamonds, even dead brown leaves.

All those dead, brown leaves lying in such beauty all around, reflecting the morning light and reflecting the miracle of a Creator who “makes everything beautiful in its’ time.”  (Ecclesiastes 3:11)  A Creator who, ” . . . gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”  (Romans 4:17)  A Creator who said, ” . . . I am making everything new!”  (Revelation 21:5)

Frost is not God’s only secret blinging agent.  I think of the diamonds dancing on the water of Lake Michigan or on any water for that matter.  Sparkles too spectacular to count or to describe properly, thousands of points of light bouncing on the waves, moving over the water, magnifying the light of the sun on the water in infinite brilliance, almost too much for human eyes.  and yet we get a glimpse of such beauty here on earth.

One of God’s best bedazzling jobs is, of course, the night sky.  We call them stars, too numerous for us to count, too far for us to ever reach them; (although God calls each one of them by name and puts them in their place) they fill our sky night after night with the beauty of a trillion twinkling lights.  Christmas Eve every night of the year.  You want to witness true bling?  just look up at the night sky!  It’s like God sprinkled glitter across the cosmos just for us.

How fitting then, that God should use a star to guide the wise men to His Son, Jesus, on that first Christmas.  God used light because ” . . .  God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.”  (1 John 1:5)  And of course God was using light to lead the wise men to “the light”.   ” . . .  he (Jesus) said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’ ” (John 8:12)

I am thankful I opened my eyes this morning to see the brilliance of the bling God is bestowing on earth, His free gift to anyone who would look and see.  Lord help me open my eyes to see the light of Your star and to open my heart to let Your light and love and life enter in.  Help me to follow the light of Your star, which will lead me to Your Son, sent so long ago, on that first Christmas.  He is the true light.

“In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.”  (John 1:4-5)

“The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”  (Revelation 21:23)

No wonder God is the master blinger.  What is bling but light?  And God created light, God is light.  God fills the sky and the water and the land with His glitter and His sparkle, bedazzling us all; revealing Himself to us in a trillion twinkling points of light (like fireflys on a summer evening) every day and every night, He woos us with wonder – the wonder of His love for each of us – a love revealed for all time in the birth of Jesus into this world.  Merry Christmas to all!

sincerely,       Grace Day