The Beauty of the Lord
As I write, I can see something of
the beauty of creation through my study window. The sky is clear blue, with
traces of thin, white cloud. Some of the trees that envelop our housing estate
are still lush with bright green leaves, while others are slowly turning into
their autumn shades of red and brown. Soft sunshine bathes the tops of
the garden hedges with a warm glow. It's a beautiful sight. And that's just the
view from my window, as I peer over a row of books and my computer screen to
gaze at the outside world. If instead of sitting here, working at this article,
I was walking around Stourhead Gardens, then the sight would be even more
impressive. Right now, I can imagine the lake lit up by the autumn sun and the
trees in all their multicoloured glory. What a beautiful world we live
in!
But there is nothing necessary about
the beauty of the world. Things sometimes function very efficiently without
being especially beautiful. The street light I can see out of my window isn't
great to look at compared with a lovely old oak tree, but it illuminates our
street pretty effectively at night. The beauty that we encounter every day is a
sign of the Creator's loving generosity. He does not want us simply to exist in
the most efficient way possible, he made us to live. He
created us with the capacity to enjoy the world
that he made for his glory and our pleasure. "But" you might say, "there is also
much ugliness in the world." Yes, that is true. Rainforests are devastated,
rivers and seas polluted. Some people have to live in soulless, graffiti strewn
"concrete jungles" rather than pretty Wiltshire villages. Not to mention the
moral ugliness that often confronts us - the ugliness of greed, hatred and
selfishness. This reminds me of the old expression, "as ugly as sin". Sin,
rebellion against the God of beauty has brought ugliness into our world.
How can we recapture true beauty? Not
by conforming to the idealised images of human perfection that we find in
the fashion magazines. We can't all be supermodels. Even if we could, through
the marvels of plastic surgery, that would not make us truly beautiful people.
As the saying goes, that kind of beauty is only "skin deep". True beauty comes
from knowing the God of beauty. If you want an example of a beautiful life,
don't look at the latest Hollywood heartthrob. Consider Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. I don't mean look at a picture of him, because we don't know what he looked
like. But think about the life he lived. Jesus shows us the beauty of love,
grace and truth. In an act of unimaginable beauty, he laid down his life for his
friends, dying on the Cross for us. Jesus embraced the ugliness of our sin so
that by trusting in him, we might be forgiven and made whole. God raised his
Son from the dead. His body that was flogged, crucified and disfigured was
glorified. In Jesus, true beauty is restored. Those who believe in him will be
made like him. "May the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us" (Psalm 90:17).