Beauty is Actually a Big Freaking Deal
Beauty. We love it. We want it. We want to personify it and we want to feast our eyes upon it. But it has been occurring to me that we often don’t know what to do with beauty when we are faced with it. We either consume it, distort it, or attempt to make cheap reproductions of it.
Some things are so breathtaking that we, like Moses, want to hide behind a rock until it passes. Other times we feel as though we are “owed beauty” and hunt it down in order to capture it. We can become the brutal minimalist, the ascetic, and claim beauty is an indulgence. Or we can finally encounter it, consume it like a glutton, only to feel guilty afterwards.
My husband and I place a high priority on soul feeding moments sitting or walking outside together. We love hiking and snorkeling and biking and beaches and sunsets. Trees and dappled light and birdsong. We are noticers. We watch and observe. But even so, until recently, I haven’t fully known what to do with the beauty I encounter.
Whether in nature or art or people or music. What is the proper and appropriate response to beauty? As a Christian I know that it has caused me to believe more fully in the Creator God and praise Him for His glories. “It is true that all men are created in the image of God, but Christians are supposed to be conscious of that fact, and being conscious of it should recognize the importance of living artistically, aesthetically, and creatively, as creative creatures of the Creator. If we have been created in the image of an Artist, then we should look for expressions of artistry, and be sensitive to beauty, responsive to what has been created for us.” (Edith Schaeffer)
As Edith is able to express, more beautifully than most, enjoying and recreating beauty should be a natural outflow of the believer. But, still, I would often feel like there was something more to be done. Somehow, I felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzle. As if there was too much for me to put into the places they needed to go. I had buckets being filled with treasure but it was too much to hold and I knew I was wasting it.
Recently, encouragement from a fellow Instagrammer, had me seeing little surprising bits of beauty throughout my days. Sarah Westfall encourages her followers to participate in #LiturgyOfTheLittleThings for five days at a time a couple of times throughout the year. I was amazed by how much it shifted what I focused on throughout the day. Day one had me notice this pop up piece of art in my little town.
I still find myself mesmerized by the juxtaposed beauty of this photo. But, again, beauty is not just for nothing nor is it a momentary reprieve from the ugly all around us, I felt myself thinking. I was delighted to discover this article just at the end of my five day #LiturgyoftheLittleThings. Benjamin Morris’ article, Pursuing Beauty in a Fallen World is an insightful and comprehensive look at beauty.
I was intrigued early on in the article where he states, “Mere response, however, is only the beginning. Scripture regularly teaches that believers are invited not just to celebrate and enjoy beauty, but instead, to envision and to enact it; in short, to co-create it.” While appreciating these words, they were still ideas that I had heard before; imitate the Creator and be creative.
But then Morris goes further and quotes C.S. Lewis: “We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words – to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” I sat up in my chair.
Finally, Morris says, “In this respect – though it is rarely expressed in this way, and to our detriment – beauty is nothing short of our sanctification.”
I put down the magazine and let my mouth, literally, drop open. In the true appreciation of beauty we can be restored. Sanctification, “the action or process of being freed from sin or purified,” can take place, not only with the acknowledgement and repentance of sin, but also in the acknowledgement of beauty and goodness all around us.
Seeking beauty is far more than the FOMO style of hunting down the next sunset or the perfectly curated dinner party table. It can also be found in pausing during church to listen to the elderly lady next to you sing a hymn in her familiar alto that you have loved for years. Or watching a friend receive the news she has been waiting and waiting for.
It might be found on a perfect beach or a lovely new outfit, but it might also be in the little conversation where your child tells you something new they’ve discovered and you get to be the first to hear it. Not just moments or things. Transformation. Back to the garden kind of stuff. Becoming the person God intended.
The concern can be that if we take every opportunity we can to bathe ourselves in beauty, we will become ill-informed and ignorant of the dying and destruction that is present all around us. I believe the opposite is true.
By being transformed but the beauty, regardless of how small or fleeting, we are being strengthened, reinforced, to withstand the onslaught of the raging wars that are going on outside our doors; and sometimes within. When I recognize something beautiful for what it is; an opportunity to be sanctified, altered, and restored, I can enjoy it even more. I can breathe it in without feeling like a glutton or a hedonist because I know that I am being fortified to face the ugly realities all around me with courage and resiliency.
They are strengthening me to offer hope and healing. If we take this all the way, though, to it’s fullest end, the more comfortable I am with beauty, the more I am being transformed by it, the more I long for the incorruptible beauty of Christ. I am being prepared to behold Him; in part now but fully in heaven.