Love Reveals the Beauty

What is man that thou art mindful of him? (Psalm 8)

The Psalmist captures the heart of the matter. Who am I, that God should care for me? Who are we that God should care for us? We are but a speck in the vastness and wonder of creation and the universe. And yet, we are loved beyond the angels. How can this be and how do I know this? Does this mean only good things happen?

The Parable of the Pebble
There once was a pebble. It was just a pebble. Over the years it had been roiled and pulverized and ground and shaped into a smooth oval. It was mostly a dull grey in color, and it had some seams and streaks of lighter hues on one side. The pebble found its way to the bottom of a lake where the light from the sun reflecting through the water, shown on the stone, giving new life to the dull grey with white streak – now revealing brilliant greens and silver.

A passerby, wading along the shallows of the lake shore saw the beautiful stone, was enamored, and grabbed it and placed it in their pocket. Now upon returning from their day at the lake and unloading their pockets of keys, and change, and soiled napkins, and other remnants of the day’s events, the passerby found the stone, dull grey again. Its appearance went back to the ordinary grey pebble with the lighter-hued streak. What can we glean from the parable of the pebble? We are formed and roiled and perhaps pulverized or ground and shaped by the experience of everyday life, the good and the not so good. But within each and every one of us, there are brilliant colors and streaks of precious silvers and when we are seen in a specific light, we become beautiful! That is the eye of God looking at us when we are just being us as He created us. It is the challenges and experiences of life given to us by Him that educate us and through which we grow.

I have a friend I have never met, but through the friend of another friend of another friend, who introduced me, I met Fr. Luigi Giussani. Of the many wonderful insights he has shared, there are two that resonate: one is how the quote from Psalm 8 struck him and another is that, in the simplicity of his heart, he gladly gave everything to Christ. This friendship has changed the direction of my life. A light has been shined on what it means to know Christ in a new way, an authentic way, and I am still working to understand what it really means, but the good thing is, is that there is no deadline.

Back to the parable of the pebble, we know that God loves us by the way He sees us. Just as a parent can’t help but look at their child with awe and wonder, Love reveals the beauty. We may be ordinary pebbles among ordinary pebbles, but when seen with the eyes of love, we are made different. And when we see something beautiful, we want to make it our own, and others may see what we see through us, and make it their own. I hope I will never look at another pebble or another person again in the same old way.

Peg Wentz