An Overwhelming Beauty: Reflection On God’s Creation By A Young Girl

By Jessica Brodie

Right now I’ve been reading a lot about stress and angst—how to tame it, transcend it, and overcome it. Between COVID and back to school health concerns, it’s not exactly uplifting stuff.

But recently, getting my preteen daughter’s room organized for a new school year, we came across a poem she wrote in class a couple years ago. The assignment required the kids. Then fifth graders, to gaze awhile at “Wheat Field with Cypresses,” an 1889 landscape painting by the post-Impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh, then write a reflection about it.

Her work startled me, for it captured not only the sadness and longing evident in the painting but the way they are juxtaposed against the swirl of vibrant colors.

And by the way, she was only 10 when she wrote it.

“I guess I wanted to say something good about God and the world He created,” my daughter Avery, now 12, told me when I asked her why and where it came from. “Sometimes things are hard, but we can look around us and bask in all that beauty, and somehow feel better.”

Wise words from one so young. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Avery struggles with anxiety, so she knows a bit about what it means to struggle and have to dig deep to overcome. And so today, I offer her words to you as a comfort.

God’s gift of creation isn’t merely a place for us to live. The brilliant colors and textures are there as a gift for us to bask in, to take comfort in, even on days when despair threatens.

Sometimes it takes a child and their unique view of the world to open our eyes to what God needs us to see.

As Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me” (Matthew 18:3-5 NIV).

Here is the picture Avery based her poem on:

Van-Gogh-Wheat-Field.jpg

 

And here are Avery’s words. I hope they speak to you as much as they spoke to me:

 

Wheat Field with Cypresses: An Overwhelming Beauty

By Avery Connor

A quiet afternoon comes,

The view surprising me.

I open my tired eyes,

Looking at

The different shades of color.

 

Calm clouds fill the sky,

No sound

Almost as if

Their mouths were locked

So tightly

They couldn’t open.

 

Big, smoky mountains lie in rows,

Like crowded toys on a shelf.

Wanting to get out,

Wanting to have an adventure,

But they can’t.

They can’t move.

Almost like they’re glued.

 

Bushes stick out,

Some soft

Some spiky

Behind them lay tufts of grass

Hiding

Scared to come out

Into the scary world.

It’s so delicate,

So fragile.

One touch,

One life lost.

 

Tall trees stand

Wanting a place in the world.

But everything controls it.

The wind shakes it,

Forcing it back and forth,

Back and forth.

When rain comes, the tree has no protection,

Nowhere to go.

 

The wheat field,

So beautiful,

Always swaying side to side.

The colors, golden brown,

Blend together

Like colors on an artwork piece

So beautiful

But always squished

And stiff.

A bed of flowers stands

So tiny but so bold.

The flowers seem so

Unreal, but they aren’t.

 

They beauty of everything

Overwhelms me.

But at the same time,

It relieves me.

Away from everything stressful.

Away from everything bad.

But no negativity today.

Today is so free.

Free.

Such a wonderful world.


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