...beauty...

Why is it so hard to see beauty in the everyday?

In everything?

I don't understand, I can't comprehend why I can't see everything as beauty.  And why not?  It is there, just waiting to be noticed.... what does beauty mean?  Why beautiful?

We all notice the pretty things, the artwork hanging in museums, the spring flower blooming, the classical music playing.  All pretty things, yes, also beautiful, but noticed for their prettiness.  Then, what is the meaning of pretty?  It is the commonly accepted things, that all can see as aesthetically pleasing.  The elegant things, the things esteemed and admired by those who make beauty something that is difficult to obtain.  It is what we can easily fine beauty in, without trying.

This brings us back to what beauty means.  Beauty is art!  Anything that was created with love, with care.  It is anything that we can look at as more than its surface appearance, more than its imperfections.  Beauty isn't what something is, but what we see it as.  It doesn't start with the quality of the object itself, but with our heart, and what we can perceive it as.  Beauty is one of God's many gifts of love to us.

We, as humans, love beauty.  We appreciate pretty things, but we cherish beauty.  How else could we love?  I think of those I love, and are dear to me.  Do I only recall their mistakes?  No, I think of their beauty.  Not the past scars they have, or hurt they have caused me, but what makes them beautiful.  Admittedly this is hard, and I don't always succeed, but it is my life's passion to realize beauty in everything.  My fellow sinners especially.  If God made it, and He IS beauty, and He calls it very good, then who am I to conclude anything other than that it holds an immeasurable amount of beauty, beyond what even I can comprehend.  

The only thing that corrupts beauty...is sin.

It pulls a veil over my eyes, beauty no longer exists to me, and passion is gone.  The world becomes blank, empty, dull, void, lifeless.  But it is not that beauty has left the world, but that my heart fails to remember God's love for me, and all I see is sin.  The gap between me and God  is widened, and my heart fears the drop, forgets to trust.  Don't look down, keep your eyes fixed on God, His beauty.

"i praise YOU because i am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful, i know that full well."

Show me how wonderful your works are God... how beautiful your creation is.  Remind me daily of the beauty I fail to notice.  Show me YOUR love, and show me how to shower it on others.  YOU created beauty......... remind me...

-written  2/18/2011-