God's Beauty.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil--this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that we will revere him.

Ecclesiastes 3:11-14

When my professor asked our Art Appreciation class "What is art?" there were a lot of various answers. My immediate response was "everything". We were mainly discussing paintings and sculptures in class, and my philosophy is that anything can be art--it doesn't have to be beautiful and it doesn't have to make sense. What matters is that someone felt an urge to express something, or tell a story or make a statement. During my quiet time today I started thinking deeply about it. As I was sitting on a bench looking out at the New River, I thanked God for His beauty. It is all around us. Beauty is most evident in the aesthetic way, but it mostly resides in people. How we treat other people, how we view God's world, how we listen and help those in need, etc.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

The more time we spend with our Lord, the more of His beauty we will see. I'm often reminded of His beauty in moments like I had today. I decided to get out of my apartment and to sit by the river. Once I got there, I thought I had made a mistake. It was too hot, there were tons of people around, and bugs were flying all around me. I read some of His word and intended to leave when I looked out in front of me. I just stared in awe at the river and the trees surrounding it. I was calmed by the sound of the water flowing and the leaves blowing. It was at that moment that I started having a silent conversation with Jesus. I was thanking Him for reminding me of His beauty and asking Him so desperately to never let me forget it. During this time it started getting more breezy, the bugs moved elsewhere, and the people passing by were no longer a distraction. Near the end of my prayer I heard a soft rumble of thunder. This, to me, was God's way of letting me know that He was listening to me and He was responding. While there are some not so beautiful things in the world and there are so many things that we don't understand; I think they just help us see and appreciate the beauty around us that much more. For example: the Crucifixion of Christ. It was brutal, ugly, painful. But He suffered for us. And He resurrected! He carried our sin, our pain, our mistakes, our disobedience; and died for us. And not only that, but he rose for us! He gave us hope and love. There is no other beauty than that of Christ.

"I see you there hanging on a tree
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me
Now you are sitting on Your heavenly throne
Soon we will be coming home
You’re beautiful, you're beautiful" -Phil Wickham

So what is art? E.H. Gombrich, a non-religious art historian said "There really is no such thing as Art. There are only artists." While E.H. Gombrich was not a Christian, his statement was more accurate than originally intended. God is the ultimate Artist. He is our Creator, afterall! We are his art. And to be like Him we must also be "artists" and use whatever spiritual gifts He gave us to show His beauty, love, and grace to others. The results are not only more "art", but a life with Him. We will mess up sometimes, and those are the ugly parts. Others will make mistakes and they won't make sense to us. But ultimately our Father created EVERYTHING. And He is beautiful and everything He makes is beautiful.

So my prayer for us is this:

One thing I ask of the LORD,

this is what I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD

and to seek him in his temple. 

Psalm 27:4