Some Thoughts On Beauty

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The other day I was being like the merchant ships bring food and goods home from a far! While I was out all alone, I had the opportunity to listen to some messages that I have downloaded from BlueBehemoth. One of them was by R.C.Sproul, Jr. and it's topic was Beauty.

He had a lot of good things to say - like whether or not beauty is in the eye of the beholder. He says we don't view all things as equally beautiful - why else do we not give away dog poo as a gift. (sorry, that was his example, not mine) Gross but it gets you thinking doesn't it?

Our culture is a culture of death. Just visit your local Target this month. There are as many aisles of items for Halloween as their are for Christmas! Also, there are several very successful businesses in our area that are haunted cornfields/field of screams type things. Ick.

I believe that God has created beauty all around us. Just think, as you look at the beautiful sunset or the autumn leaves changing color, that all this beauty is here in spite of mankind's fall.

I don't want to celebrate death or the ugliness of sin. I want to celebrate beauty and this is what I am teaching my children to do. When we take notice of a beautiful tree, or the amazing variety of flowers and vegetables and pumpkins, and colors of eyes, we are celebrating beauty.

Yesterday afternoon the autumn light was golden. Kyle had played outside most of the afternoon as I was out mowing. After I came into the house, Emily with camera in hand said "Can I take Kyle for a walk?" "Sure." She was seeing the beauty of the day outside and wanted to be a part of it. Not 5 minutes later Lindsay came with camera in hand to ask "Where's Emma? The light is golden outside. We need to take some pictures!" After being told where she was, Lindsay headed out to try to capture the beauty of the late afternoon light of a mid October day.

My friend Karen and I were talking about this topic a few Sundays ago. She said the purpose for listening to good music and great artwork is to teach our children to love beauty and to seek it. And when the not so lovely stuff comes their way, and it will, the beautiful will shine out against the dark, unlovely stuff.

I am delighted that my children are seeing beauty and life, and that they are seeking that. Beauty doesn't need to be expensive - a simple garden daisy in a canning jar is beautiful!

Today we went to Longwood Gardens for a few hours. It is beautiful at all times of the year. We went particularly to see the neat railway display they had. All the children at the gardens today were full of delight to see trains running on tracks, even a Thomas train. Their little faces would just light up! The thing I noticed was how beautifully landscaped the whole display was. It added to the beauty of the whole display. Later we wandered down the path and saw the thousands of spring bulbs being planted for next year. We went into the vegetable garden and saw simple and lovely flowers planted along side interesting vegetables. The purpose for much of this is simply to make it appealing to the eye.

I want the eyes of my family to be filled with life, and beauty and goodness. Not that they won't see the opposites of these things in their lifetime. But these are the things I want them to seek out - to dwell on - to develop in their own lives and families one day.

There is an old children's song from my childhood that went;

"Oh, be careful little eyes what you see!

Oh, be careful little eyes what you see!

For the Father up above

is looking down in love.

So be careful little eyes what you see.

We were taught this as a reminder to guard our eyes. To protect what goes in our eyes and stays in our minds forever.

I think I will teach Kyle this song tonight.