Beauty All Around

There are beautiful things.

And then there are beautiful people!

And here are four of some of the most beautiful people in the world--Our sweet Rose, charming Carrie, and their sweet friends Joanna and Emily on either side, at the Celestial Seasonings Tea plant in Boulder. 

 We picked up the girls Friday, after spending four days helping with the VBS, to take them with us to visit the Celestial Seasonings Tea Plant before going to the airport to pick up Crystal who was arriving home from South Africa. 

On the way, we passed this breathtakingly beautiful fountain near Federal Heights.

 Somebody snapped a photo of me taking another picture on Emily's camera for her!

 Then Emily snapped a picture of our family in front of the entrance to the tea shop.

 We were not allowed to take any pictures during the free tour, but I got this one just before Jonathan was happy to discard the nettings he had to wear!

 To ensure that none of our hairs got into your tea, we all had to wear hair nets. They improved our looks tremendously!!!!!  :)

Behind me up there are beautiful gift sets of tea related items--mugs, tea packages of all sorts, Celestial Seasonings special beeswax chapstick, and other pretty things. I loved those beautiful gift baskets of tea.

Below--Happy faces!

 Inside the tea shop, there were so many beautiful things that I ached!

There were the most darling tea sets--including sets for frog lovers such as our new pastor's wife!

 Somebody thought that while I snapped a photo, he should point at the message on one of those frog stones--hint, hint--

"Be Tranquil."

Pointing fingers have a way of looking a bit preachy. 

So we will smile and move on to ladybugs.

 The blue in these combinations of mugs and tea pots was just my "cup of tea."

 So, too, were these dainty white pieces with little ceramic bees.

Here were a luscious assortment of spiced or herbed mug mats and hot pads for tables with lovely designs and sayings on them.

This one was one of my favorites. It says, "Just when the Caterpillar thought her world was over, she became a Butterfly."

That sounds like something I would latch onto.

There was just something about these beautiful blue and white sets, the captivating blue color and the blue glass bluebirds

...Perhaps they brought back memories of a gift someone who cared about me once years and years ago, gave to me--a glass bluebird, which I misplaced some time or other. The glass bluebird had been given to me by a young man who had come to meet me for the first time at my graduation from Bible College. While I ended up writing a "Dear John," letter to the person later, whose name was not John, I kept the little bluebird. It was very pretty and very special, and it meant a lot to me. 

Anyone who cared about someone as skinny and goofy as Anna deserved, I thought, to have their little gift saved. I thought it was a beautiful gift, a beautiful choice, and despite that I felt I needed to say no to him, he was still a person of value and not to be treated scornfully just because he wasn't God's choice for me.

But--

the gift got lost. And that was okay. It would just be a pleasant memory.

And then another person came along and had the gumption to care about someone

as skinny and goofy as Anna.

And that was the person that the Lord gave me peace about letting them care--and letting myself care about him.

He didn't give me a glass bluebird, but he gave me his hand, and his arm, and his heart.

And I almost asked him last week to buy me one of these little bluebirds, so it could be from him, but--

I didn't. 

Instead, I was even more captivated by these charming sparrows.

And everyone who knows me well knows that the song "His Eye Is on the Sparrow," is one of my favorite songs, and the verses about God's care for the sparrow, in comparison, or contrast, to His greater care for us, are among my favorite in the Bible. 

And so--I beckoned my sweetheart to come see, and I told him that if he wanted to get me an anniversary gift (for our 20th anniversary), he could buy me one of those little ceramic sparrows.

 And then I disappeared and left the store with a big lump in my throat.

And my sweetheart came out of the store in a bit with a mysterious bag in hand, and suggested we go try tasting some tea from the sampling room before we left. 

Here was another mug that I just loved. Here is one side...

and here is the other.

And I wished so much that I could buy one of these sweet tea sets for little Hannah. But don't even look at the price. A photo of them would have to do.

Because, as these words said on the window....

And so we had to hurry out of that shop where I would have loved to browse an hour or two longer, just

to drink in all the beauty and read all the bright and cozy and inspiring little sayings,

and we had to drive on out the drive  to pick up Crystal at the airport.

But what a beautiful time it had been! We learned enough on the tour to give me a much better appreciation for tea, and to make me want to sit down every single day to have a cup of tea!

I came home and made myself two or three cups of luscious tea, green tea with rose petals, and sleepytime camomile tea, every day.