“In small and large ways, when we create beauty – in our environment, relationships, music, cooking, poetry, and celebrations – we push back the effects of the Fall and express our hope for the new heaven and the new earth that God promises.”
-Andi Ashworth
For most of my life, I have had a love affair with beauty. I loved seeing the loveliness in nature when we would go on family walks around the neighborhood or to local parks when I was young. I wore frilly dresses and picked flowers. In every house I’ve lived, I’ve primped and prodded that furniture and decorations until they were just the way I liked. And always I’ve loved to imitate beauty in the form of art.
But I’m also a thinker (dare I say over-thinker?), and I can analyze every side of a situation till I’m blue in the face. So in some ways, beauty to me seems frivolous and trivial when I think about all the real issues facing the world. Art seems nonessential in the grand scheme of things.
And yet..and yet, There is something so redemptive about beauty. God gave us flowers, and sunsets, and giraffes (I always laugh when I think about how much fun He must have had making some of the animals) for no other reason than for our pleasure. In a world full of sin and ugliness, art and beauty are a faint light glimmering in the darkness; a small picture of God.
God has gifted me with a small measure of artistic talent, and in this simple way, I want to use that gift to point toward the redemptive work of the cross and the truth that someday, something far more beautiful will meet our eyes when we see Him face to face. All the beauty we can imagine in this world is only a glimpse of our final glory in Him.
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