Creating Beauty

Robin McFee

Email: drmcfee2020@gmail.com

¹¹ "He has made everything beautiful in its time"

Ecclesiastes 3:11:

The other day a friend and I were talking about the Creator, creation, physics and beauty. Talk about a broad range of topics over lunch!

What’s interesting – when you stop to think about it, especially as people of faith, these topics are all interconnected.

For starters, God went to a lot of effort to create this blue planet we call home, and all the beauty that surrounds us – from sunsets to sunrises, mountains and oceans, to animals and flowers. He spoke the science of physics into existence by creating existence. The big bang and all that we experience is our Creator in action. From gentle breezes and all the science surrounding wind and weather, to the math in flower petal arrangements – this is more than STEM in action; just the process of creating is an act of beauty. Just ask a sculptor or composer. Our God is both, and so much more!

But In the course of our busy days do we take the time to stop and admire the Lord’s Handiwork?

Do we, to use an old saying, ‘stop and smell the roses?’ Or at least notice them? As we drive along do we see the trees flocked in snow and smile at the whimsy of God’s paintings displayed for all to see?

That said, there is another type of beauty – what we can see in each other….

My friend is a Quaker, and part of their theology is the belief we all have an inner light – most believing that inner Light being our Creator or an essence of God placed within us. 

"One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple" (NIV)

Psalm 27:4

Can you imagine being in the Presence of God, His own Personal, Radiating Light? How beautiful must it be to behold. Oh and how often in our prayers do we yearn to see God beyond our thoughts – to truly gaze upon Him. I think we share the Psalmist’s desire to “to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in his temple"

And yet in many ways we get a glimpse of His beautiful Light… in the presence of others, especially when they share their inner “Beauty of the Lord.” There are some people who just seem to glow, to radiate their portion of inner Light from the Lord, sharing it with whomever they meet. 

Put differently, in addition to having that Light, a piece of the “beauty of the Lord in us,” is the importance recognizing, looking for that inner Light in others.

That said, there are some special people who not only share the Light, who take the time to see It in others, they have a gift for bringing that Light out in others, even making It seem to shine brighter.

Put slightly differently, there are some folks who make others better just by being around them.

These are people who make the room better because they entered it, not because they exited. They add beauty to whomever they encounter. Moreover, they seem to make more beautiful those they encounter. 

You’re thinking of someone right now aren’t you? Me, too!

How do they do this? Is it their special gift of the Spirit or something we all can do?

Perhaps they have simply made it their mission to see, share and magnify the Light where they go.

Perhaps it is because they are mindful of carrying God within them, His Light, and the privilege, the responsibility to share It with others.

Perhaps these folks recognize love is beauty, is light and recognize the need to shine brightly in a world desperately in need of less darkness.

Perhaps it is because they know most people don’t feel like they matter, and by recognizing in word and deed the beauty of others – and how could it be otherwise if we have the Light of our Lord within us – valuing them just for being.

We all carry the Lord within us and if we so choose can live in a way that allows other to see Him when they see you and me. What a powerful image.

God put a lot of effort into the world and us. This becomes even more evident as we approach Lent, and recognize it is a season, a journey of transformation where, through Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, we become blessed with God’s Light indwelling as the Holy Spirit. But not a Light to be kept under a bushel, but One that needs to be shared with others, to create beauty, goodness.

We as people of faith, as Christ’s Own, have the Heavenly Light, the Creator’s paint brushes, musical notes, sculptors tools, voices, mind and gifts to create beauty, to make the world a better place because we are in it, to reflect the Lord to a world that often cannot see Him.

God put His animating Power, His Light directly into us for a purpose – to be the visible Him, the real Eternal Essence of Love to others.   That’s beauty!

We can reflect Jesus to those who meet us. We can become like Him, anew in His Light and Love, and share that with others.

Creating beauty – for all we have been given, we, too can gift others with what lasts the most….the gentle, quiet, loving Spirit of the Lord through our countenance, our words and deeds.

And when we choose to give of ourselves, to share the Light, to give the gentle Love of God, to bring out the Light in those we meet, we have in that moment created “imperishable” beauty.

“….but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.”

1 Peter 3: 3 – 4