What is Beauty?

I wrote this for Bryan College's Chapel Blog earlier this semester. Andy Norquist, a Christian artist, spoke to us on beauty and its significance.

Friday was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect.  Everyone that I talked to had a smile on their face.  It might have had something to do with the weekend, but even a professor commented that the campus seemed… happy.

Beauty is often what brings us happiness.   We see a FABULOUS movie, go on a great date, drink a delicious cup of coffee, read something that is inspiring, see an outstanding piece of artwork, notice someone's smile, watch the sunset. These things make us happy.  But what makes them beautiful to us?

Andy Norquist brought our attention to the fact that our God is terrifyingly beautiful- as in awe-inspiring, drop-down-on-my-knees and worship kind of beautiful.  It's in the moments when I realize that God is with me that I actually recognize why it is that He is beautiful. Why is He beautiful?

He gave us the Gospel- himself.  The fact that God, this all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present being, gave his son, the literal, physical, very real person of Jesus Christ to die for all of my filth, brokenness and shame.  And it doesn't stop there.  This Jesus, God in human flesh, came back to life.  Because of this, I, an imperfect person, get to be in relationship with a perfect God.  In fact, he lives inside of me.  WOAH. That story, that reality is beautiful. I know that because of this reality when God looks at me, he sees beauty; he does not see my brokenness, shame, or loss.

I have been wondering since that chapel what our lives would look like if we lived in the reality that because God is beautiful, we, then, are beautiful- because we are in him.  I wonder how many lives would be changed just with the realization that people are worth something so much more, simply because our Creator finds us beautiful.  How would we treat people?  How would we go about our day?  How would we approach His Word?  How would we approach those who don't recognize their beauty in Christ or even more devastating, those who don't know that there is beauty in this life with Christ?

My challenge would be that we take on this task: that we allow God to empower us to empower other people; that we would encourage others to seek Christ with everything within them so that they might recognize the beauty and magnificence that comes with his presence in our lives.

If you would like to read more about Bryan College's chapel services, go here: http://bcchapel.squarespace.com/blog/