God’s Beauty in the Big City
“Don’t you get tired of all the concrete?” “I would miss the trees!” “Don’t you want to get out in God’s nature and away from the city?”
I’ve been living in Queens, New York City for 7 months and people love to ask me questions like this. Maybe partly because I moved from a community in Pennsylvania (literally meaning Penn’s Woods) where trees are everywhere and towns are tiny and sparse. It seems like moving from that to the largest city in the United States should be quite an adjustment.
But I’ve found that God’s beauty and creativity is displayed everywhere on the earth, not just in nature. Over and over, I’ve seen God’s handiwork, even when I’m walking over miles of concrete.
“ God is all around me, everywhere I look.”
A father at a park sweetly sings a Spanish song to his daughters in the stroller. He pushes it carefully to avoid the bumps in the path.
There’s a magnolia tree on 51st that I’ve watched grow from buds to beautiful flowers over the course of several weeks. Its massive branches hang over the sidewalk and create a canopy of pink, sweet smelling shade.
A woman walking on my street smiled at me when I looked her in the eye and stopped to ask me how my day was going. Her face was bright with joy.
A beautiful gray cat lets me touch its soft nose.
An MTA employee cheerfully sweeps up trash on the subway car. He stops to joke with the kids on the train and makes them laugh. He leaves with a smile on his face.
The old ladies at the temple only spoke Tibetan, but they insisted I take some crackers from their table of snacks.
A police officer stands outside the elementary school directing kids and parents into the school. She welcomes the kids by name.
My neighbor is always smiling. He sells flowers and beautiful growing things at a little store on the corner.
As I sit at a large window, I watch a group of highschool students leave school at the end of the day, laughing, and sharing a pack of fruit snacks.
A teenage boy goes out of his way to open two doors for an elderly lady.
A small bush bloomed in the cold of February and kept blooming even after it snowed.
God is all around me, everywhere I look. There is beauty here in this place, and it makes me dream of a City that is yet to come;
The Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shines with the glory of God. The glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The glory and honor of the nations are brought into it and nothing impure will ever enter it.
Revelation 21
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tina calls Northwestern Pennsylvania her home, and Queens, New York her sometimes home. She enjoys spending quality time with loved ones, reading captivating and educational books, spending time in coffee shops, and occasionally engaging in an active lifestyle via biking, rock climbing, hiking, and swimming. She values the power of words and loves to see writing change and impact lives. If you’d like to contact her directly, you can reach her at tina.thesimpledesignco@gmail.com.
