God’s Beauty Found in Unexpected Places

I was getting ready for two art shows with simultaneous deadlines. Each show presented its own challenges. One challenge was picking up plexiglass for two frames from a local glass shop. The work they do for artists is good and the people are cooperative and helpful. The challenge is the parking lot. The business is in an older area of town and the head in parking lot is on a steep downward incline which ends abruptly at a large plate glass window. My car is a stick shift and shifting into reverse with that plate glass window staring at me as my car is pointed downward is a fear-making experience. When driving a standard transmission fear is not helpful.

This particular afternoon I began to back out of the parking lot and up toward the street. The car died three times. Fear and embarrassment were rising as I looked at the sharp decline of the concrete and that plate glass window. Then it occurred to me: if I let the car drift forward I would be on a more level space. I was almost there anyway. As I drifted downward I saw beauty, a simple strip of metal with orderly holes, decorative it appeared to me at that moment, beautiful in its precision and comfort. I slid up to it and it stopped me. I put the car into reverse and headed home with plexiglass in hand and beauty in my mind’s eye.

The word salvation in the Bible has as one of its meanings, safety. There is beauty in simple things that bring us to a safe place.