Beauty
Some things in this world are experienced by everyone all around the world. It’s easy to think of the negative examples. We all experience grief, hardships, sickness, and a whole gambit of arrows pointed right at us.
But I want to focus on something good that everyone all over this globe experiences, beauty.
Everyone everywhere will see something beautiful from nature and city landscapes to buildings and clothes and to even people. Art is gazed upon in wonder, our eyes don’t want to leave the screen after a beautiful cinematic film.
We will read and hear beautiful poetry and books. We will hear babbling brooks, rain fall on a tin roof, birds singing in an otherwise quiet forest. We will hear the first cries of babies, the voice of an old friend or a distant relative. Songs will dance into our ears.
We taste food that is just right and causes our shoulders to relax. We smell pleasing aromas that transport us to a different time and place. We feel warm blankets over us and hot mugs in our hands on cold days.
This is all beauty.
As Josh Nadeau says “Beauty is the common language of humanity”.
A gracious gift from God for all of us to experience in many ways.
The basic definition of beauty is aesthetic qualities that pleases the senses. Symmetry and orderliness have also been heralded as a standard of beauty, not just in faces but in anything really.
This is true with God as well for there is nothing more orderly or symmetrical than God.
He is the perfect image of beauty.
He gives glimpses of this in His general revelation to us, order and beauty in the cosmos.
Understanding this about God starts to put to light some of the enemy’s schemes against us.
He wants disorder and chaos for us.
He disrupted the created world and brought disorder in the hearts and minds of mankind with it. The deceiver made man believe that he could be like God, rearranging the order that God had set.
There is another way to fight back against this disorder and chaos brought on by the enemy.
Our fighting back doesn’t just push the enemy back, but it helps our own souls remember and rest in the order, symmetry, and beauty of God.
So, how do we fight back?
By participating in the beauty around us. Recognizing it as a reflection of the beauty of God and giving thanks for such a grace.
How do we participate?
We seek to add more beauty into our lives.
Go to a museum and look at all kinds of art,
Attend the symphony,
Eat a nice flavorful meal,
Watch kids play and giggle,
Go on a nature walk.
In short, keep your senses open to the beauty that is wanting to be received by them.
Make noticing beauty in some way a monthly, weekly, or even daily habit (it’s there if you just look for it).
If you’re creative, or even if you are not, seek to make beautiful things and partake in the created world that way. Our beautiful God is Himself a creative after all.
When we do these things, we are pushing back the chaos and the disorder that the enemy wants us to be in tune with and we are inviting in the order and beauty that God has graciously given for us to enjoy.
We get small glimpses of a greater beauty yet to come. We get refreshed and a fresh perspective on the world around us. Beauty will overcome the chaos.
Here are some places to enjoy beautiful things:
Amon Carter Museum of American Art- Free admission and open till 8pm on Thursdays
The Modern Museum of Art Fort Worth- Free exhibits and open till 8pm on Fridays
Kimbell Art Museum- Kimbell Collection is always free, special exhibits require tickets. Open till 8pm on Friday as well
Dallas Museum of Art- Free and expansive collection
Fort Worth Botanical Gardens
Fort Worth Symphony
Nature Trails in and around Fort Worth- Use All Trails app to find trails near you
Fort Worth Water Gardens- Free