“Behold the Beauty"

"Behold the Beauty"

    God formed our senses with the capacity to appreciate beauty.  Our eyes see, our ears hear, our noses smell, our tongues taste, and our skin feels not simply for survival, but for enjoyment.  Originally created in His image, we possess His emotional and mental capacity for reaction to goodness in countless forms, again, to be appreciated and enjoyed.

   "One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple" (Psalm 27:4).

   Our sensory experience serves as reflection of our spiritual capacity for response to the Source of all beauty.  "He hath made everything beautiful in His time" (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  Consider the most beautiful things you have ever seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched.  The Maker of such glory must by definition be greater in beauty than those creations.  God must imagine, plan, and execute sensory blessings from the source of Himself.  He made and sustains all things.  Thus, any genuine beauty we have ever experienced originated in "the Father of lights," from whom "every good gift and every perfect gift" graces our hearts (James 1:17).  God's invisible beauty of character, nature, disposition, and way shines forth from visible expressions of His goodness (Romans 1:20).  Thus, every form of beauty that graces our senses provides opportunity to acknowledge, praise, thank, and devote ourselves to the Great Artist.

    God could have made us to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch without capacity for the emotional response of pleasure when we experience beauty.  Or perhaps He couldn't have done so.  His own nature of beauty means that He could not have formed a creature in His image who did not possess His capacities for pleasure known by the glories He made and brings to us.  All point us to Him.  Every sensory experience of true enjoyment speaks to our hearts of the glorious One who Himself constitutes the very essence of joy.  A beautiful scene, a melodic sound, a pleasant fragrance, a delicious taste, and a soft touch all tell us of their Source and of His beauty.  Our present lives grace us with such glory.  A future eternity promises far more as our glorified senses will respond to God's wondrous artistry with greater capacity for enjoyment.  Most importantly, our glorified hearts will respond to the Source and Essence of all beauty.  The Artist made us for such an eternal journey into the gallery of His heart.  He beckons us to come today, "to behold the beauty of the Lord," and then to anticipate even greater wonders to come.  Let us not miss this, the opportunity of a lifetime and of an eternity, or as the Psalmist entreated...

"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us."

(Psalm 90:17)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple" (Psalm 27:4).