"Beauty is dangerous." Gerard Manley Hopkins
"Beauty will save the world." Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Beauty invites, beauty nourishes.
"Come, all you who
are thirsty, come to the waters... Listen, listen to me, eat what is good, and
your soul will delight in the richest of fare." Isa 55:1-2
God created beauty, everything we take as beautiful from
flowers to love, to babies, to poetry, God is author of it all. Our broken
world speaks of Gods heart, a heart of love.
"The beauty of the world is almost the only way by
which we can allow God to penetrate us... Beauty captivates the senses in order
to obtain permission to pass straight through the soul... The soul's
inclination to love beauty is the trap Go most frequently uses in order to win
it." Simone Weil
If God is beautiful, then beauty is a good, sacred thing. It
means that we need to understand that as part of God’s creation, even more than
that, as having been made in the image of God we as humans are beautiful.
Not in the straight nose, nice teeth, high cheek bones sort
of way, though some of us have that. But that we have a soul, a soul that we
are to invite others to know, so that they can heal their hearts. We need to be
tender to every person we meet, because they have a delicate soul hand crafted
by God.
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,
just as God forgave you.” Eph 4:32
It means we are to look past the fallen depravity of people
and to call out what God has made them to be.
“To possess true beauty, we must be willing to suffer… If Christ himself was perfected through his sufferings, why would I believe God would not want the same with me? Women who are stunningly beautiful are women who have had their hearts enlarged by suffering. By saying “ Yes” when the world says “No.’ By paying the high price of loving truly and honestly without demanding that they be loved in return. And by refusing to numb their pain in the myriad of ways available. They have come to know that when everyone and everything has left them, God is there… Living in true beauty can require much waiting, much time, much tenacity of spirit. We must constantly direct our gazes toward the face of God, even in the presence of longing and sorrow. It is in waiting that our hearts are enlarged.” Captivating by John and Stasi Eldridge
Love Quippy
