Beauty

I learned a lot about beauty yesterday. Then I experienced it. I went to Bloomington with a friend yesterday evening and rode home surrounded by breathtaking beauty. With the windows rolled down, the bluesy sounds of Stevie Ray Vaughn playing, and very little conversation, the inside of the car set the stage to glory in the beauty on the outside. The sky was full tonight. To my right layed out the Big and Little Dippers with Draco winding between them; above me countless constellations I can't begin to name; and to the south and west clouds were gathering, preparing to bring showers of blessing. Still a distance off, however, all they brought for the time being was a light show, displaying the beautiful curvature of the cumulus clouds the lightning bolts hid behind. Add in the dark country highway lined with trees and the warm night air breathing into our car, and you've got yourself a full display of God's artwork.

As I soaked in my surroundings, I remembered what I had read earlier that day in Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. Here are some highlights from the section:

Beauty is essential to God. No - that's not putting it strong enough. Beauty is the essence of God. The first way we know this is through nature, the world God has given us. Scripture says that the created world is filled with the glory of God (Isa. 6:3). In what way? Primarily through its beauty. ...Beauty is given to us with such generosity and abundance it is almost scandalous.

... Nature is not primarily functional. It is primarily beautiful. Which is to say, beauty is in and of itself a great and glorious good, something we need in large and daily doses (for our God has seen fit to arrange for this). Nature at the height of its glory shouts, Beauty is Essential! revealing that Beauty is the essence of God. The whole world is full of his glory.

... The reason a woman wants a beauty to unveil, the reason she asks, Do you delight in me? is simply that God does as well. God is captivating beauty. As David prays, "One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek... that I may... gaze upon the beauty of the Lord" (Ps 27:4). Can there be any doubt that God wants to be worshipped? That He wants to be seen, and for us to be captivated by what we see?

But in order to make the matter perfectly clear, God has given us Eve. The crowning touch of creation. Beauty is the essence of a woman. ... God gave Eve a beautiful form and a beautiful spirit. She expresses beauty in both. Better, she expresses beauty simply in who she is. Like God, it is her essence.

... Beauty reminds us of an Eden we have never known, but somehow know our hearts were created for. Beauty speakes of heaven to come, when all shall be beautiful... Beauty says, There is a glory calling to you... All these things are true for any experience of Beauty. But they are especially true when we experience the beauty of a woman - her eyes, her form, her voice, her heart, her spirit, her life. She speaks all of this far more profoundly than anything else in all creation, because she is incarnate; she is personal. It flows to us from an immortal being. She is beauty through and through. "For where is any author in the world Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?" (Shakespeare).

So not only were my surroundings glorifying God, but I myself as a woman glorify God in the same way. Definitely something to think about more in the future. Most def, most def. =)