It’s a city neighborhood filled with concrete and high-rise apartments that I call home these days. To the casual observer it might be called ugly with a penchant towards the bland uniformity of communism that shades its past. But I am not a casual observer. I am a missionary called to this street and community and city and country. I am a woman of purpose in who dwells the One by whom and for whom ALL things are made. And for about twenty minutes each day I pound that concrete and I connect with He who ‘upholds all things by the word of His power’. These fall days have filled those 20 minutes with the glory of His creation. He touches my mind and heart with the mystery of His higher ways. I am overwhelmed by beauty that is as poignant as it is transcendent. Through His glory revealed I touch eternity. And from that touch I am sent back to the here and now to be a bearer of hope in a neighborhood filled with concrete and gray. In every place I have called home I have sought and found a sacred route where I can behold the glory of God in His creation. In the words of the prophet Jeremiah : “You shall seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart.” {29:13} And this is what separates a God-centered enjoyment of creation from a human-centered pursuit of creation. 
As I am overcome by a majestic sunset, I receive it as a gift from the God of the Universe. It reminds me of His love and His beauty and it is a promise. The promise awaits perfect and complete fulfillment at the end of all things when I will worship the Only Perfect God forever and ever. Instead of becoming restless with a desire to get closer to the beauty of this created world, I recognize the love and pursuit of the One who asks for every element of my life. The busyness and poopy diapers and slobber that fill a lot of these days don’t look the same after I have connected with the God of the Universe through His creation. The long hours my husband spends away from home as a worker in a plentiful harvest have more meaning. The thousands of miles that now separate us from so many loved ones are filled with purpose. I see the glory supremely manifested in God’s Son, resurrected and reigning, with a greater sense of its infinite worth. As a Christ-follower, beholding the glory of God in creation transforms the concrete in my neighborhood. The unique colors brushed across the sky through clouds in perfect position, peel back a layer of Heaven where God will be my perfect delight. Then, as I look again at the gray sidewalk and apartment buildings, I see beyond their dull colors to the eternal souls made not for the non-descript shade of concrete but the exquisite hue of a matchless sunset. This is how the creation continually reveals the God of salvation, redemption and eternal life. As you and I clarify what that beauty calls us to in the here-and-now we have an apologetic that reflects from the core of our being before a watching, searching, restless and gray-tinted world.  Check out the Not About Me November Series 
About Abby Abby is a small-town loving, big city adventurer. She and her husband have worked with high school students most of their lives! Since their internship in Budapest, Hungary in 2005-2006, they have been working with the ministry of CRU. In May of this year, they moved to Hungary answering God's call to work long-term with the students of Central and Eastern Europe. Abby loves to laugh, especially at herself, has a passion for God and making Him known and is ever learning how to do that with three small children, ages 5, 3 and one month. She wouldn't trade the journey for anything! She blogs regularly at Fan the Flame Want to read more from this contributor? Put her name in the search box at the top.
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