I think all baby pictures are cute but there is a picture of a toddler in Cracker Barrel that scares me. The baby is in a portrait with his family and it looks like they put make-up on this little boy for his family picture. I’m thinking to myself I would never do that to my child. Don’t criticize me. We have been told that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or is it something more?
Most of us are taught that beauty is a matter of taste.My great uncle liked listening to big band type music. He loved music of the 20’s and 30’s. I think it is just racket. So when I had to ride with him up to Tennessee one time, I showed up early and took out the fuse that was connected to his radio. He thought it was just broke. A math teacher looks at Algebra problems as the greatest piece of masterpiece ever written, I want to puke every time I see an equation.
Beauty can also be a matter of perspective. I am always captured by the beauty of the ocean. But watch in horror as the same waters can destroy thousands of lives in a Tsunami. It is an awesome display of beauty to watch a volcano erupt from a distance but when you turn and notice a village lying in its path the beauty disappears. Beauty fades so quickly. What role does beauty play in our lives? It is so powerful that it evokes deep feelings of awe, wonder, and gratitude. What is this longing that I have in my heart to be captured by beauty. We all find different things beautiful. We have all experienced beauty in some way we will never forget; beauty that has brought longing to our hearts. In one sense I think that beauty is found in the sense of the longing, the kind of pleasure which is wonderful and yet leaves us unsatisfied. An example is in the way we view fake flowers. I was in a restaurant the other day and looking at this beautiful arrangement of flowers by the front door. They were exquisite. I was convinced that they were real. As I left the restaurant I reached out and touched the flowers only to discover they were fake. I felt let down, betrayed, and yet was convinced just a few moments earlier that I could smell the aroma coming from those flowers. The sunset is soon over. Fall colors will freeze. Spring flowers will dry in the summer heat. The world is full of beauty, but the beauty is incomplete. I believe that is the way God intended for it to be.
The poets who penned some of the psalms speaks of the earth being full of God’s glory. The term “glory” is sometimes translated beauty. As a believer in God, I believe that true beauty belongs to the Lord. It is his voice that we hear in the rise of the sun. It is his power we feel in the crashing of the waves. It is his beauty we see reflected in a thousand colors. The earth is full of the beauty of the Lord, a beauty that cannot be reduced to the terms of our senses. The full extent of true beauty can only be experienced in relationship with the Creator.
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