Beauty

This morning I have been listening to a song that speaks of the beauty of Christ. In our image driven society it is easy for me to dismiss this by thinking, "how do you know Jesus is beautiful? Have you seen him?" The song is also sung by a couple of guys and culture today has taught us that this is odd that a man would sing of the beauty of another man.

It clicked for me when standing in front of my mirror that I am, and I would assume many other people, have become habitually trained to be physically driven to the point that it is hard to not see beauty outside of that context.

"Jesus, oh holy one, I sing to you forgiven. Savior I'm overcome with your great love for me.

You are worthy! you are worthy! You are worthy of all my praise!
You are beautiful! You are beautiful! So I lift up my hands and sing!

You are worthy! You are worthy! You are worthy of all my praise!
You beautiful! You are beautiful! So I lift up my hands and sing!

Mighty King how beautiful you are. How beautful."

So when this song speaks of the beauty of Christ, whether it was intetional or not, it is calling the listener to see beauty outside of what we are seeing. The picture of Christ's love for his church is a beautiful thing. Christ's church responding to that love by proclaiming that he is worthy of all our praise and we will lift our hands and sing is a beautiful thing.

The gift we have been given to experience God's creation with five different senses is a beautiful thing. So why do we emphasize sight? What about smell? Smell above anything has the greatest power to in an instant fling me into memories. When I was in elementary school my family lived in this neighborhood where one side of the street we lived on had these trees that produced this amazing sweet smell when they bloomed in the spring. Now whenever I smell that I automatically think back to playing hide and go seek with my neighborhood friends at dusk on a spring night, and there is the perfect temperature in the breeze and I can smell those trees by my house. What about hearing? I love music for the simple reason that it has this power of moving emotions in people involuntarily. Last night we had a concert here at school and the second to last piece just gave me chills with the amsing harmonies and overtones and a couple hundred choir members singing the last line double forte. What about touch? There is something about touch that can be healing and comforting. It can be the slightest touch that is the most powerful, that can send chills through your whole body. Flavors have the same effect on our memories as smell does. Our senses seem to control us and maybe the only reason we emphasize our sight is because we depnd on it the most to manage our lives. What about the blind? I often think they are priviledged to not have their sight from how dependant those of us that have our sight are.

Find ways to see beauty ourside of your sight. There is nothing wrong with our sight, but we have been given more than just our sight to enjoy.