So God created man in his own image… Gen 1:27
A camellia garden is at the end of our church’s street. One perfect but completed bloom fell onto the mulch. Its circlet of pink-tinted petals reached imploringly up from the mud as if to say, “I am still alive and too fine a thing to be down here.” Each petal boldly pushed a wafer-thin finger of vibrancy and color into space—a delicate expression of God’s penchant for beauty.
What makes the curved form, ethereal construction, and blended hues of a flower attractive to us? What makes the emerald masking of a mallard handsome? Why are the millions of interweaving vibrations of a symphony intoxicating? How is it that a rainbow’s arc of prism-splayed color never fails to illicit an, “Ah, look at that?” What causes the breathless pause when a poem completes its rhythm using precisely the right word? Why are the stars incredible, sculptures enchanting, dances captivating, sunsets breathtaking, children adorable, and diamonds dazzling? Why was my pink camellia enthralling and the mulch around it common? What makes beautiful, beautiful?
A wildly creative God made no two humans alike and so we will never fully agree on beautiful. Still there are some commonalities to our definitions. We like patterned symmetry but also the unique and rare. We like pure and unflawed. We like ordered yet creative. We like the rhythm of crescendos and rests, contrasts of thrills and tranquility. It occurs to me that all of these are what God is. God is dependable, unique, rare, pure, unflawed, ordered, creative, passionate, restful, thrilling, and serene. We are patterned to love the things our Creator is. A billy-goat couldn’t care less about the display of a peacock’s tail, but a peahen really goes in for that sort of thing. She is patterned by God for attraction to iridescent feathers. You and I are patterned to love what our Father is. And that is what beautiful is.
Prayer: Father, I am glad to be like You.
Posts
