The Earth is Filled with Beauty (Mar5-11)

This week in snapshots:

Another Saturday is upon us, my beautiful friends!

You guys really seemed to resonate with some of the things I said about beauty last week. So buckle up, because I’ve had a couple weeks to think this through and I haven’t shared but a scratch on the surface regarding beauty haha!

I have heard it said that biologists are the only scientists who have such a deep grasp of their science that they do not see or need God in it anymore. Physicists (esp. of the quantum variety), astronomers, chemists, and every other kind of person who looks at the created cosmos in any depth further than standard education sees beauty and design - the fingerprints of a creator - EVERYWHERE, and especially the more closely they look.

I share this not because it’s true (I’m CERTAIN it is an Internet myth; biologists still don’t know jack about a LOT of biology!) but as an illustration of a) the power of beauty and that b) one of the most obvious reflections of God is beauty.

I was reminded this week that the word “beauty” has a lot of connotations in Western American English, most of them sexist. Women are “beautiful,” men are “handsome.” “Beauty” standards apply to women in 90% of the public conversations we have. But when we try to “beautify” a city, we usually mean “add more plants to public spaces” or “paint our buildings to remind us of nature.”

Most people do not hear the word “beautiful” and connect it immediately to God, even though when they stand at the top of a mountain looking out over the valleys and other mountains they find themselves immediately struck with a sense of the Divine. When a land-locked person visits the ocean for the first time (or the 77th time), the magnitude of the water immediately awakens the reality that God is God and we are not.

And that’s a shame, because if the Earth is filled with the glory of God… then God is indescribably beautiful. And I know in America’s cultural faith tradition we are not at all accustomed to (let alone comfortable with) acknowledging that what we describe as femininity is truly part of God’s divine image, and that’s why I prefer to use “beautiful” over any of the dozen other synonyms I could choose to describe the reflection of God we see when we look closely at the world he has made or find ourselves marveling at the magnitude of it.

God created a beautiful world because he is beautiful!

Does that make you feel any kind of way? Because it seems to make people in my faith tradition feel uncomfortable… and I have found it so comforting. Tell me about it, because some of you probably realized this before I was even born haha!

I want to fill my house and God’s houses and my life with beauty! I want my spaces to reflect God back to me! I want the things on my walls and the walls themselves to remind me of Him! I want to be surrounded by his most prized and beautiful creation, people! And I want to SEE how beautiful they are!

And of the powers that beauty has as a direct reflection of God, I think the most profound is that beauty heals. Multiple studies have found that hospital patients in rooms with a window or indoor plants or art on the walls (aka direct access to beauty of any kind) RECOVER FASTER and ARE LESS LIKELY TO DIE than patients in plain hospital rooms!

I grew up in the communist block of Krakow. The buildings in communist blocks were intentionally built without beauty because Soviet communism was anti-God. When communism fell, the people who lived there responded by painting their gray, square, concrete buildings obnoxious colors like yellow and pink and orange. Why obnoxious colors? To heal them from the evils they experienced under communism.

Do you have any anecdotes that attest to this reality? I know the two concepts are related - God is beautiful and he heals! I’d love to hear your stories and thoughts about the matter :)

Peace be with you until we speak again,

—Beth