The Gift of Beauty

While driving up the inter-state highway, I turned on my CD player. Beautiful music poured out of the speakers. God embraced me! I wish I could find words to describe the sense of His Presence, but it is indescribable. I could not speak for 20 minutes, I was so full of emotion. Some would dismiss that experience as just an 'emotional' high, or with explanations of chemicals released in my brain. I know it was the Spirit of the Lord. He used beauty to touch my soul, to tell me of His love, to remind me of His plans and purposes.

I am not the only person who has experienced God's Presence in the arts. My friend, "Doc" Edmunds has written to me more than once to tell of sensing God's Spirit while he enjoyed a classical composition. He has shared with me that it forms a context of worship for him. Chuck Colson, in his book The Good Life, writes - "When I need inspiration, I sometimes walk on a beach near my home in Naples, Florida. I've always been moved by the majesty of the oceans. The nearby Gulf of Mexico, year-round, storm or no storm, is an absolutely beautiful sight. It is particularly striking during the summer..... I experience awe and wonder and gain perspective during my walks on the beach. ... I identify with Scottish mountaineer, W. H. Murray, who described his unspeakable joy at witnessing a great mountain peak as one on of those 'fleeting glimpses of that beauty which all men who have known it have been compelled to call the truth.'"

David, the Psalmist, who had spent many nights under the stars caring for his sheep and later, waiting for a morning's battle, wrote of the glory he saw in creation's beauty. In Psalm 19:1-4 (NLT) we read:"The heavens tell of the glory of God.The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to all the world. The sun lives in the heavens where God placed it."
Beauty should draw to think of the Person who brings order from chaos, who is the Painter of the sunset, the composer of the songs of birds and whales. A person does not need to be sophisticated to appreciate beauty. A child can recognize the wonder in a rose!
Because we live in a world marred by sin, where evil works against good, we deal with ugliness everywhere. Warfare spreads chaos and destroys the beauty of human community. Hatred tears apart people - in families, in towns and cities, religion from religion, nation against nation. Gardens quickly degenerate into weedy messes when left untended. Even the arts are marred when God is removed from them. I cannot help but note the difference between what is created by those who see the world as a place loved and created by God and those who are without a knowledge or belief in God. Much art produced by post-moderns who see the world as a product of random chance and a place without over-arching purpose is chaotic, full of noise and fury, and harsh - because that is the place from which the artist begins his work!
Are you in need of perspective?Has life overwhelmed you, problems become many while resources have diminished?Take a beauty break! Go ponder the works of God in Creation. Or, listen to some beautiful music. Or, visit a garden. Or, enjoy a work of art... and do it with a prayerful invitation to the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to embrace you, to come close and to remind you that despite the destruction and chaos that the Evil One wreaks on this world, that He is the King of Kings, the Author of Life, the One who remains the Source of Hope, Life, and Beauty.
Here's a word from the Word to ponder today: "...what may be known about God is plain ... because God has made it plain .... For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:18-20, NIV)
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O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy pow'r throughout the universe displayed!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art! -

Carl Boberg, a Swedish pastor, editor of a Christian newspaper, and member of the Swedish Parliament, was suddenly caught in a midday thunderstorm in 1886 while visiting a beautiful part of the coast of Sweden. The rolling thunder and flashing lightning filled him with awe. "Following the violent storm, he was inspired by the calm water, the clear brilliant sunlight, and the sweet songs of the birds. The experience prompted him to fall to his knees in humble adoration of his mighty God. He penned his experience in the poem which later became the song sung across Europe and the United States - How Great Thou Art!