My husband had the good fortune of having yesterday afternoon off from work.  We wanted to use the free time to go someplace fun, but having just paid for a major car repair it had to be someplace free as well as interesting to both of us and a five-year old.  Since I enjoy gardening, Brett enjoys taking pictures and Aspen enjoys watching fish, we settled on a water pond supply company that advertised having 500 ponds on 250 acres. 

We put in the address and followed the GPS down the road to “Lilypons”.    As we arrived near the store Aspen looked out the car window and said, “Look! There are a lot of ponds!”  And so there were, but we couldn’t see a store or a sign….until we drove past it.  Then we saw a sign about the size of a street name sign with the name “Lilypons” on it.  We made a U-turn in the road and drove in.  I was a little apprehensive.  The store was several miles out-of-town surrounded by farm land and sure didn’t look like a place many people would stop by and shop.  Besides the view of the ponds from the road was unimpressive.  But as we drove down the small road we could see the sales building with cars in the parking lot.  We passed a few more unimpressive ponds, mostly because it is a little too early in the year for much of anything to be in bloom.  We joined the other cars in the parking lot and Brett retrieved  his camera from the back of the car.  Aspen excitedly led the way down the path to the ponds.  Despite it’s being too early in the season for the flowers to be in bloom the ponds and water statues were beautiful to see. 

As Brett set up his camera to take some pictures it crossed my mind that our experience entering Lilypons is a lot like people’s experience with Christianity.  They are thinking about it, but when they see it, it just doesn’t look very attractive.  Many people take a cursory glance and just wander on by not bothering to enter.  But the truth about God is that more you seek Him,  the more beautiful and exciting He becomes.  The beauty of God intensifies with each step that draws us closer to Him.   

Brett and I intend to go back when the flowers are in bloom and possibly earlier in the day to be able to see some of the unusual birds that live there.  Jeremiah 29:13 tells us, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”