Beauty is Essential For Our Life

Let's not forget, in these days of an overabundance of ugly and fear, let's seek out something beautiful.  We were created to view beauty.  We need it.  We crave it.  Did you every wonder why?

"That we even need to explain how beauty is so absolutely essential to God only shows how dull we have grown to him, to the world in which we live, and to Eve, [the first woman, made in the image of God.]  Our own spiritual lives are lived with barely a nod to beauty, to the central role that beauty plays in the life of God, and in our own lives.  We hold to the importance of truth and goodness.  We skip right over the importance of beauty when trying to know God."

"Beauty is the essence of God.  The first way we know this is through nature, the world God has given us.  Scripture says that the created world is filled with the glory of God.[Isa. 6:3]  In what way?  Primarily through its beauty.  Nature is not primarily functional.  It is primarily beautiful."

"We are so used to evaluating everything and everyone by their usefulness that this thought will take a minute or two to begin to dawn on us.  Nature is not primarily functional.  It is primarily beautiful.  Which is to say, beauty is in and of itself a great and glorious good, something we need in large and daily doses [for our God has seen fit to arrange for this].  Nature at the height of its glory shouts, Beauty is Essential! revealing that Beauty is the essence of God.  The whole world is full of his glory."

"Next, there are the visions given to John, who was taken in the Spirit to behold God.  As we can only imagine, he finds it hard to put into words what he saw and tried to find things that were like it that he knew."

"The one sitting on the throne was as brilliant as gemstones--jasper and carnelian.  And the glow of an emerald circled his throne like a rainbow...In front of the throne was a shiny sea of glass, sparkling like crystal." Revelations 4:3,6

"Is there any doubt that the God John beheld was beautiful beyond description?  But of course.  God must be even more glorious than this glorious creation, for it foretells or displays the glory that is God's." Excerpt taken from Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge

So, seek out something beautiful today.  Your self needs it, just as it needs the other essentials of life.
Start with the bursting spring of nature around you.  Then, soon, you will start to see the beauty in the things near you that you have overlooked.  The small things.  Tears.  Laughter.  The essence of God.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creative Prayer- Conversing with God using art

Image
 Why pray?  "First, God.  God is the subject of life.  God is foundational for living.  If we don't have a sense of the primacy of God, we will never get it right, get life right, get our lives right.  Not God at the margins; not God as an option; not God on the weekends.  God at center and circumference; God first and last. Having a conversation with God may be less about you and more about God.  Your focus may shift away from yourself and toward your creator.  If you have a friend who constantly asks you for things but never really wants to listen to you, how deep can your relationship go?  Sometimes we forget that God has a personality and a creative side to Him, and wants to engage us at a deeper level.  Let prayer be a time to savor.  Look forward to spending time with God, using art as a tool to slow down and be with God.  Allow this to be a time in which God speaks to you and you actively seek Him.  An audible voice may not come booming out of the clouds, but many thing
Read more

Session #4 of Creative Prayer..Praying with the Body and Making Crosses

Image
  These ideas are taken from the book,  Making Crosses—A creative Connection to God, by Ellen Morris Prewitt .   Active Prayer   —Praying with your body Praying With the Body-Bringing the Psalms to Life by Roy DeLeon   Roy is an Oblate of St. Benedict and a spiritual director.   He teaches classes in “Blessed Movements”, praying with body, heart and soul, and conducts workshops at monasteries and retreat centers.   He lives in Washington state.      Warm up Active prayer with the Psalms Opening Alleluia praise prayer to begin anything.   This is also a way to get Scripture out of our heads and into the air and into our bodies. When we begin, we are reminded why we are praying, our intention is union with God, wherever we are, it is Holy ground and we need to be attentive and watchful for the inner movement of the triune God with us. The prayers are written in sections, with a Lectio Divine format, a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the Word of God,
Read more

Creative Prayer Workshop #3 Paint Your Heart Out! Painting your emotions

Image
  We had a wonderful workshop with Allison leading us in painting our emotions.  We started with putting a color on paper of what a description of anger, joy, peace and love would look like to each of us in color. The next paintings were guided layers of emotions, perhaps a lie we believed, and the truth that we know, all represented in colors and layers.  Some of the pictures from the evening are below.
Read more