Beauty restores.
Beauty is both the echo of Eden and the forecast of Heaven (thanks to the writings of John Eldredge for reminding me of this fact).
Beauty’s echo can be heard by all, but too many other ringing sounds regularly drown out the reverberation. The modern, high speed, efficient, productive American way of living and working has minimized Beauty to me.
As I think about it, though, minimized isn’t quite right. I didn’t shrink Beauty. No, a better word choice is ignored; I’ve ignored Beauty for getting things done.
Now, while ignoring Beauty, what has been accomplished has been good and noble, like building a solid career. Very few of us would define career advancement as a bad thing. After all, Efficiency and Productivity are celebrated labels. However, career success can be blandly defining and often idolatrous. Thankfully, I think I’ve navigated away from many of the sharpest breakers with career, but we all get a wave crash or two when we swim too close to those dangerous and deep waters.
Efficiency and Productivity are not Beautiful.
They’re simply not!
They are not Life Giving.
They don’t deepen you or make you a better person.
They don’t restore your humanity and sanity.
They just serve to drain, exhaust and wear you down. They bring an immediate flicker of satisfaction. Yes, they do. They just can’t restore and rejuvenate. They don’t Add to the Beauty.
Enter the Stay-At-Home orders. We are all in this new mode of life and time of lessened productivity and there’s really no need to be efficient when there are no solid deadlines or things to set an alarm to attend. It is precisely because of this new rhythm, thankfully, Beauty has made herself apparent to me again in three unrelated ways: in handmade cards, pictures of the ocean and a new book that just arrived.
I am married to a gifted creator of handmade cards. Sarah is a visual artist in photography,
scrapbooking and painting. Lately, with the additional time, often late into the night and further into the wee hours of the coming tomorrow, she’s been creating handmade cards to celebrate every possible life circumstance and holiday. She was moved to give them away to neighbors and church friends as a way to spread joy, human connection and Add to the Beauty.
But how?
This whole social distancing thing means we needn’t be visiting everyone for tea and dessert to make a card delivery. Sarah opted to set out a display, refreshed daily (after the midnight creative rush), on our front doorstep. She let friends and neighbors know via social media
that they could come by any and every day and simply take whatever they wished. My part of sharing that Beauty has been to be “the muscle” by setting out the display case before noon each day and bringing it back in by 8pm each evening. I get to spend a few minutes everyday mesmerized by the intricate detail and intentional artistry. In these past few years of Sarah creating a lot more cards, I’ve become keenly aware of how treasured they are to the recipients. People actually display her cards around their homes and offices. They keep that Beauty always before them. Sarah’s handiwork Adds to the Beauty of their worlds and mine.
Beauty also showed up lately, mercifully, when I rediscovered a couple of printed photographs I have in my Bible and journal. Back to loving a scrapbooker, I’ve learned one MUST print photographs to truly enjoy them. I have one of the Atlantic Ocean at sunrise off the coast of
South Carolina and another pic of swings and cabanas overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Daily now I see these photos.
Daily again I see the vastness of the ocean.
Daily I’m reminded that coastal creation is stunning while I’m sitting in landlocked suburbia. The Beauty and memory of the oceans bring me back to a bigger story, a heavenly one, nearly every morning. We were just at the Pacific in March. We’re already looking forward to returning to the Atlantic in the Autumn. That kind of Beauty restores me, calms me.
One last piece of unexpected Beauty during this season of life has been a book. I’ve been reading a lot more, daily, and one book I’ve desired to acquire for some time, I finally ordered. Douglas McKelvey’s masterful Every Moment Holy Liturgy arrived last week with its leather
bound cover, it’s gold edged pages and ribbon marker. The content is obviously why I bought the book as it is full of guided prayers and meditations to keep my heart, mind and soul grounded in the truth of God and His holy Word. As I opened the box, I was immediately softened by the Beauty of the book itself. To hold a leather covered book vs a paperback; to have gold edged smooth pages vs rough cheapie-do paper; to have a bound red ribbon, a scarlet thread of sorts, to hold your place at the last prayer you prayed vs an advertisement laced bookmark from the used bookstore downtown; all of it Adds to the Beauty.
There are signs in our area that a loosening of restrictions will be soon and we can “get back to life”. I’ll be glad for some of that. But I will intentionally keep Beauty in front of me as I get back into the new/old rhythms. As Sara Groves sings: “Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces calling out the best of who we are, and I want to Add to the Beauty, to tell a better story, shine with a light that is burning up inside.”
Beauty.
More please.
1 comment:
Beautiful, Joal. Thank you for sharing and for the reminder.
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