Beauty Sense
Typically, when you think of God, what qualities come to mind? Perhaps you think, “all-knowing, wise, forgiving, loving, powerful, or full of truth”. But do you ever spend time thinking about God’s beauty?
Psalm 27:4 says, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: 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 inquire in his temple.” David wanted more than anything to gaze upon God’s beauty. As humans, we are each created with a built-in craving for and attraction to beauty. We love to see mountains or colorful butterflies, sunsets and waterfalls, we love beautiful music and art, beautiful homes, cars or clothes, beautiful people, beautiful oceans and gardens and the list goes on. We are startled by and drawn to beauty. WHY?
I believe we were made by God to be drawn to beauty, because beauty in creation is God’s invitation for us to recognize and delight in Him. Charlotte Mason calls this built-in appreciation and desire for beauty that we all have, our “Beauty sense”. She says, “There are few joys in life greater and more constant than our joy in Beauty, though it is almost impossible to put into words what Beauty consists in; colour, form, proportion, harmony – these are some of its elements…But beauty is everywhere – in white clouds against the blue, in the gray bole of the beech, the play of a kitten, the lovely flight and beautiful colouring of birds, in the hills and valleys and the streams, in the wind-flower and the blossom of the broom.” (Ourselves, p.41-42) We can see, though, that “beauty” is difficult to define. How would you define beauty? What is beauty? And have you ever considered WHY did God create us with an attraction to beauty?
The dictionary generally defines beauty as a combination of qualities present in a thing or person such as shape, color, sound or form, that brings deep satisfaction to the aesthetic senses, especially the sight, but may also include bringing pleasure to the mind or spirit. We often think of beauty as something visually attractive because of the beautiful thing’s brilliant color or form. But if beauty is merely visual, how can our invisible God be beautiful? Is there a beauty which cannot be perceived merely by the eyes? And WHY is nature so beautiful – beautiful and not merely functional? God could certainly have created all the flowers in one color. Or made only one season. Or one kind of butterfly or bird. Why is nature SO lavishly varied, colorful and beautiful, not merely functional? Why?
The Bible says also that humans have beauty. But there is a human beauty which is vain (Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Prov. 31:30) and a beauty in nature which perishes (James 1:11). Though God created and sees outward beauty, we are told his greatest interest in us is in the beauty of our inward hearts (1 Samuel 16:7 …For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart). There is an inward human beauty which pleases God and which the Bible says is imperishable, spoken of in 1 Peter 3:3-4 (…but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious). So we see not all beauty is external.
A friend of mine posted a story not long ago, with pictures online of a young bride-to-be who was going to be married soon, but her beloved grandmother was too old and frail to come to the ceremony. The young bride decided to take her wedding dress (before it was even altered) on a plane and visit her grandmother. She planned to put it on and show her grandmother and take some pictures together, so her grandmother could at least participate in that small but significant way. The grandmother was 103 years old at the time (and died less than a month afterward). Who do you think was most beautiful in the photos – the young bride in her wedding dress, or the 103 year old grandmother? When you look at the pictures of the bride, you would see that she is gorgeous and her dress is beautiful. But there was one picture which nearly took my breath away. It is of the two women together, but it was the grandmother’s face which struck me. She is stunning in the picture. Not because she has gorgeous outward beauty (she has an old body with grey hair and wrinkles galore), but her smile and her eyes show a striking, almost holy beauty of love and joy. Not all beauty is external in nature or physically perceived, some of the best beauty is of the heart, reflecting inward character qualities of God, and God says in 1 Peter that beauty of the heart is “imperishable”.
One place we see beauty constant and everywhere is throughout nature – we see beauty in nature day and night, we see it every day and in every season, and we see nature in every country and can appreciate beauty regardless of how much money we have or what language we speak. Sam Storms once said, “Glory is what you see and experience and feel when God goes public with his beauty.”
Since humans fell into sin, however, we have failed to see through the beauty of creation to the beauty of God – the beauty of His kindness, love, power, creativity, wisdom, generosity and so on. Because of sin, people have either become dulled to the beauty around us – ignoring or taking it for granted (we probably all to some extent do this every day), or we have simply stopped at the beautiful thing, appreciating beauty merely for itself rather than seeing it as a gift from God. Some people have turned to actually worship the created beauty they see, rather than its source. Without faith, people are blinded and deceived into thinking there is no God, or thinking there is something better than God. Without faith in God we don’t see his glory or beauty, and our brokenness of sin and our obscured vision causes us to miss beauty’s intended purpose – that of leading us to Him.
The good news is that because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, he has made a way, so that we can turn to God in faith, and when we do, that veil of unbelief is removed and we can actually see God in and through all of life and creation. Mason says however (and I agree with her), that still, “We all have need to be trained to see, and to have our eyes opened before we can take in the joy that is meant for us in this beautiful life.”(Ourselves p. 43) The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to God’s beauty when we turn to God in faith, but we also can work to train our eyes and hearts to see him in everything. Studying God’s word is the best place to find this beauty and see God’s character revealed. Nature is another place where we take in this joy.
I have had the privilege of regularly studying nature with a beautiful group of individuals over the past ten years. Some have come and gone, and new families have joined us, but one family has remained constant throughout. I have watched with marvel at how the children have grown and flourished and developed their “beauty sense” to such a high degree as they themselves have now grown, and are developing into incredibly gifted adults. They are wonderfully observant and knowlegeable. They see and capture on paper things the rest of us miss. One of those students in particular, Elliana Kissinger, I have roped more than once now into helping me with various projects. A few years ago I had a naturalist capstone project to do for the Kelly Creek Preserve. The topic was prairie plants, and she developed gorgeous posters of the plants for educational display. It took her minutes. This year I asked her to draw some biblical foods with black and white botanical drawings for the corners and other detailed areas of my book, to coordinate with the feast theme of the book’s title, “Feast Of Inquiry”. It is with great appreciation that I was able to include Elliana’s artwork to add a touch of beauty to the otherwise dull-looking text. What a gift.
My encouragement to you all (and myself) again this year, is to read God’s word. Look for the beauty of God that He reveals within its pages. And get outside. Begin to train yourself to see in God’s creation those things in nature so abundantly beautiful and attractive, and let them draw your thoughts to God – taking delight in His goodness and beauty with praise and thanks and worship.
For the love of God,
Anne
Blog Archive - Original Post 2023