BeeYOUtiful
By Colonel Donna Igleheart
Happy summer friends! I pray this note finds you well, blessed and enjoying the sunny side of life. Last summer I was still surrounded by the new, the strange, a never-ending mound of boxes and yet sweetly overwhelmed with the beauty around me here in Southern California. Maybe today you find yourself in a season of transition and can relate, if so, I am praying for an extra portion of grace, strength and sunshine as I share this note today. Hang in there, God sees YOU!
A year later and God continues to use seemingly ordinary things that helped me during those onboarding, settling in days to see and sense His presence. Such things as luscious flowering gardens, curious hummingbirds, rhythm of the ocean waves, the cool summer breeze, and the gift of meeting new friends. Most recently it was a child’s laugh! The laughter started at his little toes and gloriously worked its way up and spilled out into a bellowing sound of pure joy! The more I was around this sweet boy it became very clear that his joyous spirit was simply who God had created him to BE!
I recall when we first arrived my husband called me outside to look up into a beautiful eucalyptus tree at the entry of our home. He said, “Be still, listen and watch.” It didn’t take long to recognize the buzzing of hundreds of bees. The tree was full of swarming busy bees beautifully making a difference as they pollinate and effect the world around them. They were doing what they had been created to be and do.
I have a friend who often posts the same word not only my facebook post, but others. One word written with a little liberty, but so powerful. Bee YOU tiful! It always makes me smile because I know that this represents who he is and that he truly means it! I love how he emphasizes the word YOU in this lovely word. He makes each person feel seen.
What if we recognized that God created us to be exactly the way we are? What if we looked around us and recognized the beauty not only in the creation but in God’s most treasured, his people?
Psalm 139 is a powerful reminder of the weaving process and intricacy. Psalm 139:13, ‘For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb’! The very One who created heaven and earth orchestrated all the delicate, inner parts of our body. He knit me together within my mother’s womb. I was made wonderfully complex. God knew me as He was so beautifully designing me to be me! The same for each of us!
He framed and fashioned each of us into a beautiful creation, not one of us just alike.
The hummingbirds don’t look at the bees and say I wish I were a bee. They are busy being who they were created to be. They are beautiful in their own way, making a difference as they were uniquely created. It’s often easier to see all the beautiful things around us but miss the Bee YOU tiful thing God is doing in us and through us. Psalm 139:14, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” I never want to lose that be still, listen and watch posture…I might miss something Bee YOU tiful! Let’s see and praise each other’s Bee YOU tiful uniqueness!
