Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Revealing Beauty

   Beauty is more than aesthetic pleasure; it goes deep to the heart of who we are. We were designed to reveal beauty--beauty from within and from without.

   Beauty is all around us. In the soft cry of a newborn baby. In the blossoming trees of early spring. In the tears of the brokenhearted. In the joy of a child not yet awakened to the troubles of the world. Beauty is everywhere; we need only to look with fresh eyes. Look around you right now: There's a beauty bomb just looking for a place to detonate.

  

   According to Psalm 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." All of Creation is an expression and extension of God's love. It is a living mosaic, an explosion of imagination, beauty, and wonder.

   Sometimes Creation simply defies logic: God didn't have to put 228 distinct muscles in a caterpillar's head, but He did; He didn't have to give every created star a name, but He did; and He didn't have to create you and me, but He did. Sometimes we just need to let go of logic and breathe in the beauty all around us...and breathe out our praise to the One that created it all.


   Revealing beauty is so important because it reveals God, the One who is beauty. We are only able to reveal beauty, however, when we are living with our senses fully engaged. What do you see, hear, taste, smell, and feel that needs to be revealed?

   As our lives move endlessly from season to season, from trial to trial, beauty never ceases to fade. Even when the winter season of our lives lingers longer than we'd like, beauty is buried just beneath the surface; it's only a matter of time before the new growth is revealed.


   Can a cemetery be classified as a thing of beauty? I believe that it can when viewed with the proper perspective. A child in a casket; a child in the arms of Christ. Painful? Absolutely. Beautiful? Most definitely.

   Our most powerful work comes when we reveal beauty in the midst of disappointment, rejection, pain, or tragedy. It is possible; with Christ, all things are possible.

   When the world drives you to your knees, find the beauty. It's there; I promise. Discover it for yourself and then reveal it to the world.