“Mommy, look at that ‘eautiful (beautiful) bird,” exclaimed Joshua one day recently. I looked up from my gardening thinking he might have been talking about a cardinal or hummingbird. What I saw was a turkey vulture circling overhead.
I half-heartedly said, “Yeah, that’s a nice bird.”
You see, I really don’t ever think of turkey vultures as beautiful. They fly around looking for dead animals to feed on, they have a bald, pink head, and they are quite large. Beautiful is not a word I would have ever thought to use to describe them.
Yet, that bird was not really flying, but soaring and floating through the sky. Most birds have to flap their wings many times to keep flying. The turkey vulture didn’t really seem to have to exert much energy to stay in the air. The more I thought about it and watched the bird the more beautiful it seemed.
Joshua has a unique way of looking at things. He will often get totally engrossed in the details of an object. When he saw the bird he saw a beautiful creature who seemed to not have a care as it floated through the sky and into his view.
How wonderful to be able to see things the way my son often does. He didn’t expect the turkey vulture to be something it wasn’t or couldn’t be. He thought it was beautiful just the way it was.
Sometimes, I think that is exactly how I need to make sure I am looking at him…
…as the unique and wonderful gift from God that he is.
