Chasing the Beautiful God

What is beauty? How would you define it? It’s a bit of a mystery right? It’s one of those things that you know when you see it but can’t quite put words to why you know. Beauty moves you. You may not even call it beauty. You might call it awe or fascination or delight. But I tell you it’s beauty that brings forth those feelings in your heart. Beauty is one of those things that catches your breath away and fills your heart with joy.

Different people find different things beautiful.  A scientist or an academic might find beauty in ideas and concepts where most people find boredom. A runner might find delight in running where most people find exhaustion.  The truth is that beauty seems to speak more about the movement of your heart as a response than it does about a particular characteristic that you or I can define with words.

It is also true that something that can seem stunningly beautiful one day can be downright ugly the next.  Have you ever had that experience where you read an article or listen to a song touches you deeply on Friday and you go back for the same feeling on Monday and just don’t find it?

Beauty sustains us. Eric Liddle said, “God made me to run fast and when I run I feel His pleasure.” That’s beautiful isn’t it? I think we can all relate to something like that in our lives. Beauty brings forth life in our hearts. When you’ve had a time where you haven’t felt awe or delight or joy or fascination your heart gets hungry doesn’t it? You long for something exciting, something that would move you, something to fascinate.

Beauty can be found everywhere. It’s in the stars and the trees and the clouds and the water. It’s in the eyes and faces of the people we love. It’s in the books we collect and the music we download and the movies we watch. It’s in the way a husband looks at his wife, in the way a father hugs his children, in the way a preacher tells a testimony.

We find it hard to define beauty because beauty is what God is and when we experience it it’s because He has opened up our hearts for it to come in. That’s why the beauty of the same thing can differ from one day to the next. We say that ‘beauty lies in the eye of the beholder’. No, beauty lies in the heart of our maker who touches our hearts to see how He sees. Every time we experience beauty it is a kiss from God. Therefore, let us walk through life looking for the touch of His hand. We were made for delight and delight is found in a man who loves us. This is what we were made for, this is what we were made to be satisfied by.

What do you find beautiful? I’d love to hear your answers in the comments section below.

J. Ratcliffe