{"id":521,"date":"2016-04-27T05:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T10:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/?p=521"},"modified":"2016-03-27T23:13:10","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T04:13:10","slug":"concrete-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/2016\/04\/concrete-nature.html","title":{"rendered":"Concrete Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I came across this little yellow flower in the middle of concrete I was struck by the juxtaposition. Beauty can flower through the toughest of circumstances. Just as in the midst of our struggles to believe in God and be strong in our faith there can be glimpses of the beautiful times in our faith.<\/p>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t it amazing how God can break through the concrete of our hearts just when we need it? There is no hard surface that God cannot break through with the beauty of a flower or the green leaf.<\/p>\n<p>Where do you find beauty in the midst of struggle? Share in the comments!<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/files\/2016\/01\/flower-in-cracks.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-440\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/388\/2016\/01\/flower-in-cracks-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"flower in cracks\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I came across this little yellow flower in the middle of concrete I was struck by the juxtaposition. Beauty can flower through the toughest of circumstances. Just as in the midst of our struggles to believe in God and be strong in our faith there can be glimpses of the beautiful times in our&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":591,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Concrete Nature - Through the Lens of Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/2016\/04\/concrete-nature.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Concrete Nature - Through the Lens of Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I came across this little yellow flower in the middle of concrete I was struck by the juxtaposition. 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Just as in the midst of our struggles to believe in God and be strong in our faith there can be glimpses of the beautiful times in our&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/2016\/04\/concrete-nature.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Through the Lens of Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-27T10:00:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-28T04:13:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/files\/2016\/01\/flower-in-cracks-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"eelliott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Concrete Nature - Through the Lens of Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/2016\/04\/concrete-nature.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Concrete Nature - Through the Lens of Faith","og_description":"When I came across this little yellow flower in the middle of concrete I was struck by the juxtaposition. 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