Winter in North America… grey skies, cold temperatures, beige-brown fields, grey piles of snow.

It’s easy to look at what we see and not be aware of hidden realities.

That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Paul tells us to remember that what’s in front of us is not the whole picture.

And sometimes God surprises us.

Recently, I saw a flock of seagulls in a parking lot. Denver is about 1,000 miles from the sea!

I have no idea why they were so far from the sea. But it was an illustration of beauty in the midst of this grey winter.

God used these wandering gulls to make me look twice.

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Paul Merrill writes here every first Friday.