Beauty

“Beauty is goodness made manifest to the senses.”

Dallas Willard, American Philosopher

Each and every one of us is drawn to and appreciates beauty. Whether it’s beauty found in nature, the beauty of a human interaction, or the beauty of the arts, there is something deep down in us that is touched by beauty. Something that God placed in us. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” And Genesis 1:31 also says, “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” The Hebrew word there for “good” is ṭôḇ and can also be translated to mean “beautiful.” What do these scriptures tell us? God creates everything with beauty in mind. He has placed beauty in us and around us so that we may be reminded of His goodness, His hand in all things.

These scriptures also show us that there is nothing that God cannot make beautiful. Think of His plan of salvation. When Jesus was crucified that was not beautiful, but His suffering was made beautiful by becoming the path of salvation — the gateway for us to have an intimate relationship with God. It is from this beautiful connection that the world can truly be saved. Because when we are in relationship with God, the beauty of that relationship transforms us from the inside out. God can transform the world with transformed people.

When we say that God’s beauty transforms us, it is not as though He makes us someone entirely different, rather, we become who He has truly called us to be. At Generation Next we call this Being Earnestly And Ultimately Totally You or BEAUTY. God is the one who saves the world, but He does so by using people who have embraced a relationship with Him and have been made beautiful because of it. In this way BEAUTY can truly save the world.

~ By Candice Cardenas, based on the notes and inspirations of Pastor Roger Pearce

Blog image by Ingmar H @fujiforest via Unsplash