This Beautiful Creation

Do we tire of beauty?

This question has been on my mind as I have been taking in the new sights of Arizona and California this past week. I have never seen so many cacti or palm trees in my life. I am not used to mountains being visible from my front yard. The beauty here is astounding.
I wonder if to locals it seems commonplace?

Today, as friends were driving me home from the weekend trip to California (I'll write about that soon!), I was telling them where I lived. I meant to say, "It's the house next to the really tall palm tree." But instead of palm tree, I said pine tree!
I felt so silly because I haven't seen a single pine tree since I arrived in Tucson last Tuesday. Yet in a way it makes sense; I have spent my whole life looking at pine trees (my yard in Battle Creek is full of them) and I have rarely seen palm trees.

Being away from Michigan makes its beauty stand out more to me: the greenness of the grass and the trees, the way the leaves change color in the fall, the sparkling white on everything after snowfall, the budding trees and flowers in spring, and the seemingly endless blue waters of the Great Lakes.

Being a new resident of Arizona makes its beauty stand out to me in its newness. The differing flowers, bushes, and trees fascinate me, and I am constantly trying to comprehend the wonder I feel at these new experiences. I wonder if any Arizonans who have never been to Michigan would feel the same about the vegetation of Michigan if they were to go? I often wouldn't take a second glance at pine trees or other common parts of nature, and yet whenever I think about any of these things more in depth, I am easily astounded by their complexity. It is easy to see beauty when I take the time to reflect.

Do I tire of beauty?  I find myself hoping that I won't fail to notice the beauty around me and that I can every day appreciate the beautiful mountains and the cacti and the palm trees, regardless of what stresses and challenges might seek to distract me. I hope that I can recognize God as Creator every day and worship Him through my acknowledgment of the vast and awe-inspiring forms of beauty in our world.