On beauty

Two good posts recently on the beauty of God's creation and how every person is created to experience it in the very core of our being. Worth reading both of them in their entireties at the links below.

Excerpt from singer-songwriter Shaun Groves:

Here in this frozen sanctuary, mountains for walls, frothy silver clouds for ceiling, I’m stunned by the scope of creation outside the cul-de-sac. I’m happy. Not because of where I am but because being here I’m more aware than usual of everything good and beautiful in the world. Why does nature do that to some of us? Why don’t I make more time to walk in it? Some saint once said that if he looked at creation long enough God looked back.

And this morning He’s talking back too.

Here in all this perfect beauty a man is on the stage making liberal use of words like “imperfect”, “wicked”, “depraved”, and “sinful”. The paradox isn’t lost on me. There’s something, for me, about the collision of beauty and busted that grabs my heart and mind with both hands and demands their attention. The contrast is brutal. But the beauty also works to console and inspire me, to make me long for and realize what God is making of me: beauty.

Excerpt from Maria:

Other experiences that often move me to aesthetic pleasure: listening to a beautiful song, feeling its soul-thrilling melody bring inexplicable delight and joy; reading something well-written, enjoying each well-turned phrase and felicitous expression; seeing beautiful colors in nature (flowers) or man-made (clothing, shoes, purses, art), relishing in the bright hues, the intensity of shade, the suppleness of texture. There's something refreshing and restful about these simple pleasures.