A Statement on Beauty

Life is full of beauty.  This is a self-evident truth.  We see beauty seemingly everywhere we look, from the harvest rains to the newborn babe.  While this is a right and good thing to assess to beauty, it is a different thing altogether to worship God for that which is beautiful, instead of focusing uncritically on the thing itself.  In other words, it is an easy trap to fall into to worship the beautiful instead of He who created beauty.

This other step, the step from assessing beauty to worshiping God, is the necessary step so that we can realize the privilege of beauty in its sheer and profound fullness.  For if we take forgranted the accessibility and presence of beauty, we have, if at least inavertedly, taken forgranted God Himself by that same token.

Thus when we see the vibrant beauty that fills this created universe, when we are blessed to see that which is provocative and glorious, our proper response needs to be praise for God.  Mere enjoyment of the beautiful thing, it turns out, is insufficient to affect the heart until it unless the heart is turned to face God in worship.  Because of all this, we should strive to to see beauty as it is: a beautiful reason to worship God!Beaut