Since we moved into our house a year ago, I’ve enjoyed our view out the back windows probably more than anything else.

There are banks of these types of windows along the entire back of the house and the kitchen is included in that, carrying my line of sight down into the lower pasture, grazing ground to our herd of horses. While I cook, I get lost in that view. Somehow dinner manages to make it to the table but I often wonder how, with my mind wandering and being distracted by the constant lure of nature happening beyond the glass.

Then, yesterday, as I was stirring sauce and boiling spaghetti, my eyes lifted on their own, following their usual pattern, only to be met with this…

My little gal, waiting patiently for dinner, having a drink after an afternoon of horsey business with her Aunt Maddie, and doing a little counting with Mickey and his gang. The usual early evening splendor of the yard beckoned my eyes, but I couldn’t seem to make them move past the light playing off her curls, or her little feet hanging over the bottom rung of the chair back. I couldn’t stop looking at those shoulders and how much taller she seemed to me. Suddenly, I realized that she was the view, and not just in that moment.

She was THE VIEW.

No matter what spectacles of beauty God has created for us to enjoy, none is more spectacular than the human being. The people around us – those we love and those we don’t even know – are what we’re really supposed to notice. The earth and all of nature was created as the backdrop to showcase the human; not the other way around. We forget this all the time because nature is calming, easier and less messy. It doesn’t require much of us at all, easily grabbing our attention away from the complexities of humanity. But while nature may show us the excellence and majesty of the Creator, humans show us His heart.

And you know what?

You need to be thankful, and unafraid to dive in and get your hands dirty, because it’s the very best view you’ll ever see.

“Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” Genesis 1:26 NLT

“For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving…” 1 Timothy 4:4 ESV

“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.” Psalm 139:14 NLT