The Beauty Hunt

I am on a quest for Beauty. Now if I meant the world’s definition of beauty, I suppose I wouldn’t have to look far. All I would have to do is find a doctor who would cut away enough and put enough plastic in me to make me look like a magazine cover. Enough. This beauty tells us we will never be enough the way we are. When I run after that, it only brings dissatisfaction.

No, I am talking about true Beauty. The kind I am just starting to recognize. The kind I see in my grandma’s gentle smile, in the myriads of different flowers, in a heroic act, in a child’s innocence.

I love nature. I can’t get enough of sunsets, butterfly wings and astounding variety. For the longest time though, I couldn’t verbalize why. I loved the beauty but felt like the reason lay in something deeper than what my eyes were seeing. It wasn’t until I started to see the world as God’s artwork that I really started to understand.

All that is Beautiful and Good stems from God. He is the ultimate definition of Beauty and thus, everything that is truly Beautiful reflects on who He is. All symmetry, harmony, creativity and variety in nature stem from His imagination. All kind acts, noble feelings, and bravery are concepts humans can have only because they came first from the mind of God.

So in finding true Beauty in the world, I find God and in so doing find joy and contentment. Anne Voskamp explains in One Thousand Gifts, “This is how. I learn how to say thank you from a laid-low stalk of wheat. From the wind rustling glory through the dried blades of grass raised, from the leaves in the silver maple hushed awed still. I pay tribute to God by paying attention.”

I believe that paying attention to the Beauty that surrounds us is a piece of finding that full life that Jesus promised us. If we can identify the Good and Beautiful in life and gratefully attribute it all to its Source, we find joy- a joy that never ends as there is always more Beauty to find because the Source is infinite.

I say this all fully aware that pain and ugliness exist in our universe. I am not saying we should ignore this. Pain needs to be looked in the face. But if I can train myself to see the Beautiful while being aware of the ugly, the Beautiful will give me the strength to bear the pain with joy.