Beauty...what is it?

C.S. Lewis said, "It was when I was happiest that I longed most...The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing...to find the place where all the beauty came from."

Beauty...where does it come from? What is it?

We all long for beauty. We talk about beauty all the time. We look for it in art, music, cars, movies, the earth, and people. Why is it that we long for beauty? I think that it is because we are wired to seek our God, the only source of true beauty.

Think about who we are. We are God's image bearers by nature. We originally bore God's image wonderfully, and mirrored God's righteousness, knowledge and holiness as well as personality (meaning that God is a personal God, and we are persons built for relationships) and community. We were mirror bearers of our great God. In Adam, we walked with God in the cool of the day. We understood and knew what true beauty was. It was God and all his works...including man. Interesting isn't it?

Adam and Eve walked around after being created and were both naked and unashamed. They had perfect fellowship and community. But they knew that the beauty of each other and the whole of creation had its basis in God.

The point of all of this is that beauty does not exist to be had merely in the works of God, although all of God's works are truly beautiful. But this longing for beauty should not stop us at a poster of the Swiss Alps (if you like me think moutains are beautiful for instance, but insert your favorite representation of beauty here), but should drive us to travel to the Alps (insert the real thing here).

What am I saying? This longing that we have for beauty that pushes us to be happy should drive us to the source of all beauty. What is the source of all beauty? It is God himself.

So as we long for beauty, and search after it, and are delighting in it. Let us remember that we need to use creation as the springboard to have our minds lifted to God, the true and ultimate beauty.

If you don't think that God is beautiful, then you may want to check whether or not you have had the new birth yet.

Also, what do you long for? Do you long for true beauty? Well, seek it, but don't stop at the picture, go to the source. God is true beauty.