Boundaries of Beauty

Hound dogs can really get you with their sad, pitiful eyes. That’s how Sofi, our American FoxHound, looked at me this morning. So, I decided to take her for a longer walk than usual. As we hiked the grass trails near our house, I noticed the sunlight brightening the blooms on my right side – and to the left, the dark water of the canal that runs through our neighborhood (see photo). As Sofi and I strolled between water and flowers, these three words popped into my mind: boundaries of beauty.

All paths have boundaries. If there were nothing to mark our path, we would be lost.

God’s path is like this as well. His righteousness, as expounded in Scripture, guides us for our own safety so that we won’t wander in lostness and ways that could put us in peril. Some view these boundaries as stifling, but that’s not how Scripture presents them.

In Psalm 119, David writes: “I delight in the way of your decrees as much as in all riches.”

David recognized the value of God’s way, and he delighted in it. And in Psalm 19 he says: “The precepts of the Lord are right, making the heart glad; the command of the Lord is radiant, making the eyes light up.”

That does not sound stifling to me but beautiful. And part of the beauty of God’s Word is that it helps keep us on his path, which leads to a deeper relationship with him. As we traverse these first weeks of Lent, may we walk closer with Christ along the path that he has marked out for us with beautiful boundaries.

Fr. Darin+