The Beautiful Eternal

The Beautiful Eternal

What is it that makes us yearn for beauty?  In people, in nature, in created things, in music, and even in words, we seek after beauty.   Artists of various kinds long to create something transcendent – something that will be remembered long after we are here. 

I believe part of this yearning is manifested in the longing for something that always seems just out of reach.  One example of this is people’s desire for a “dream home.”  I think most of us have a conception of that perfect place – if money were no object and we could have exactly the dwelling we wanted, in the exact location we wanted.  Many people would want to be near water; some would want to be in the mountains.  We would have different ideas of size and style of a house, but we would no doubt look at pictures and follow a plan that had some objective standard of beauty about it.   

Ecclesiastes says God has placed eternity in the human heart.  Could it be that this eternity, this knowledge that there is something beyond this life, is the beauty for which we actually yearn?  In seeking after beauty, are we really seeking after eternity?

Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.”  Is it really that eternal place which is our heart’s desire?  The place where He is – where his Presence, his Glory and his Beauty permeate the atmosphere and every particle of our surroundings. 

Romans 1:20 says that God’s invisible attributes, his divine nature and eternal power, have been seen in what was made, so people have no excuse for unbelief.  We can look around at the complexity and the awesomeness of nature and see Him.   In the beauty of creation, we are able to see those invisible attributes. 

I remember as a very small child, often looking up at the clouds and being overwhelmed with the beauty of them.  From my earliest memories I was taught about the love of God and the story of Jesus and his sacrifice, and to me all that was tied into the beauty I saw in the world around me, especially the sky and the clouds.  I honestly never doubted any of it.  His creation in all its various forms is meant to lead us from what is beautiful to what is good and true, to what is eternal. 

When we look at a sunset painted in the sky, or majestic mountains that dot the horizon, or the ocean teeming with life, we see God in all of it.  All of it points to Him.

Lead with the beautiful, because it will inevitably lead straight to Him.