Today is a beautiful picture book day, boundless blue skies, a few wisps of cotton candy clouds, no gray in their bellies. The sun is beaming down hot and relentless making nature’s green colors look almost fluorescent. Mother Nature added a breeze to the mix so I could sit comfortably in the porch swing and listen to the songbird symphonies and tintinnabulations of the wind chimes. I’m watching five turkey buzzards begin their climb on the wind current staircase, their shadows floating across my sidewalk and up the brick wall across the street. The buzzards will soon be just a black spec in the sky.

The long legged blue jay has continued to visit my yard, eating the sunflower seeds that fall on the ground from the bird feeders. He’s a handsome bird dressed in his blue and black uniform, black kerchief around his neck. Today he needed a bath but was timid and inhibited as he tested the water in the bird bath. He stood on his long skinny legs, knees bent like an old man, surveying his yard from the edge of the birdbath. Guess he’s never been skinny dipping before. He was very cautious with his bathing. Maybe Kat was hiding under the sunflower leaves.

I love this quote about the beauty of a blue sky. “It was the kind of sky born of bluest petals, as if it were once a great expanse of nothing until the flowers melted upward,” Angela Abraham. When I look up in the deep blue heavens this morning, I feel I’m seeing a glimpse of eternity. I can see the “bluest petals.” Bible scripture describes the sky as a testament to God’s handiwork. Psalm 19:1 reads, “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” We see God’s power in the deep blue heavens, whether cloudless or dotted with bright white clouds. We feel God’s power in the dark purple thunderstorms punctuated by lightning and thunder. He put his watercolor brushes in his hands and stroked his glory across the horizon giving us a daily view of his glorious creation.

Psalm 36:5 states, “Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.” The heavens express God’s unwavering love showing us his grace is as boundless as the sky. Gods glory is evident in the natural world — the beauty of the snow capped mountains, the vastness of the oceans, and the power of the volcanoes. We see God’s artistry in the delicate wildflowers, the twinkling stars, the beautiful butterflies. And as the sun rises in the wee hours of the day, we see the wondrous pigments of God’s paint palette.

Genesis 1:1 states, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Six days and “the Lord God had created heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.” And he made this planet for us, his children, and filled it with beauty and majesty. Psalm 111:2 reads, “Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.”

If we really appreciate all the beauty in our lives when we say our prayers we need to thank God for this earth we inhabit. Psalm 65:8 reads, “Those who live at the ends of the earth stand in awe of your wonders. From where the sun rises to where it sets, you inspire shouts of joy.”

“As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to make the earth a beautiful garden for the human family.” — Pope Francis