Beauty

I spent Labor Day week in Itasca County, as I have been doing for the last two decades or so. 

It’s perhaps my favorite place on this Earth God gave us. The giant red pines and the towering white pines beside those deep, shining lakes just seem to call to me. And you all know how I feel about fishing.

There’s something about being alone in a boat on one of those beautiful lakes in the early morning as the sun is rising and the mist is coming off the water that seems to make it easy to draw close to the LORD.

Likewise, when the sun sets and the lake is painted with glorious red and orange and pink and blue and the deep green of the trees along the shoreline, there’s just something that happens in my soul.

They say, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and certainly there is something to be said about individual tastes and preferences, but I believe beauty would not exist without God.

In Psalm 27:4, David writes:

“One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”

God is beautiful. And, like all of God’s attributes (love, mercy, grace, justice, wisdom, etc.), His beauty is infinite. He is infinitely beautiful. That beauty derives from all his other qualities. That infinite love, mercy, grace, justice, wisdom, and all His other qualities are the essence of what makes Him the most supremely, magnificently, beautiful being that ever is and ever will be!  

When God created the Garden of Eden, it was beautiful – and into the garden He put Adam and Eve – His perfect, beautiful masterpiece of creation. (See Ephesians 2:10.)

He loved them infinitely and told them that they would be in charge of caring for the beauty all around them. And then He told them to be fruitful and multiply the beauty He had created.

And all of this was created by Jesus, through Jesus, and for Jesus: 

As Paul writes in Colossians 1:16:

“For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” (NIV)

And John writes in John 1:3:

“Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (NIV)

Hebrews 1:3a says,

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” (NIV)

Paul even writes, in Romans 1:18-20, that this beauty all around us has made it obvious to all the world that God exists and so people have no excuse for not believing in Him.

I believe the part of human beings that recognizes, appreciates, and craves beauty is God in us. It’s that “made in the image of God” thing it says in Genesis.

We do. We have a longing, a need, for beauty. 

It’s why people plant flowers and gardens and trees. It’s why they feed the birds.

It’s why grandmas collect knick-knacks. And doilies. And Christmas ornaments. And all sorts of things.

It’s why grandpas make things out of wood or metal or brick and mortar. 

It’s what drove Michelangelo and da Vinci and countless others to express that beauty on canvas, on paper, in marble and stained glass, and in endless other ways too numerous to list.

Yes, beauty is a human need.  

See, because without beauty, all that’s left is ugliness. And sometimes it seems (especially when we listen to the news) that there is a LOT of ugliness out there. 

And ugliness is most certainly not why Jesus came to this earth. 

No, Jesus came to this earth for the specific purpose of defeating the ugliness of our sin. And, in the most hideous, ugly, nasty, repulsive thing that ever happened on this earth, the One for whom everything was  created in, through, and for defeated the ugliness of sin and death itself and walked out of the grave alive on the most beautiful morning this world has ever seen since God spoke it all into being. 

Speaking of beautiful mornings, not so many years ago, I got up early and watched the sun rise over the Sea of Galilee from atop a hostel in the city of Tiberias. The beauty of that sunrise over that lake was so astounding it broke my heart. It was so beautiful, tears welled up in my eyes.

And, in that moment, it occurred to me that somewhere in this world, every moment of every day, that same sun is rising somewhere. 

God’s beauty, the proclamation of His glory and the astounding beauty of the LORD and Savior, King Jesus, is taking place right now at some place on this earth at this very moment –and it never ends. Day after day, the beauty and the glory of the LORD Jesus is constantly being proclaimed in brilliant colors that fill the sky and shout of His glory forever!

And somewhere, about a half a world away, at the very same moment, the sun is setting in an amazing chorus of color and majesty and power as it proclaims the eminence and power and glory of the LORD Jesus Christ. 

See, that’s why beauty is a God thing. It’s God’s signature, His fingerprint, His way of telling us He is still there, still in control, still gently but gloriously speaking His love and mercy and grace over us no matter how ugly the ugliness gets. 

So, while human beings have built and constructed and made glorious and beautiful temples and tabernacles and churches all over the world to the glory of God, I’m going to leave you with Acts 17:24-27

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” (NIV)

Seek the LORD, reach out for Him. You will find He dwells in the glory and beauty He has put in the world all around you. You will find that beauty dwells in you. It dwells in your neighbors, your friends, and all sorts and kinds of people you haven’t met yet. 

And don’t forget to share the beauty with others. 

Add to the beauty. Multiply the beauty.