“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice!”

Philippians 4:4

A dear friend of mine by the name of Dewitt Jones used to be a photographer for the National Geographic. Whenever he went out to shoot a national park, a national treasure or a beautiful landscape, he was always charged with “Celebrate What’s Right with the World.” It is easy to focus on the negative of the world. It is easy to get sucked into “Doom Scrolling” on the internet for all the bad news that is out there about politics, climate change, crime, poverty, unemployment and so on. If you want to find the negative…there is plenty of it and then some.

But there is also plenty of beauty, joy, peace, nature, love, art, dancing, freedom, friendship, happiness, puppies, ice cream, laughter and bubbles. There is so much more right with the world than there is that is wrong with it. Let’s not lose sight of that. Let’s celebrate what’s right with the world. Let’s take time to slow down and absorb all of the beauty that God has given us and enjoy our humanness. Let’s enjoy God’s good nature from time to time, breathe and blow some bubbles. One of my favorite all time scriptures from Apostle Paul reiterates this: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8 Let’s celebrate.

-Photograph by Dewitt Jones