What Makes a Thing Beautiful?

By kburggraf1 2015. Morguefile.com

As human beings, we are drawn to beauty. Sometimes we yearn for it.

But what is beauty, really? What makes something beautiful?

Often, what is beautiful, and what is not beautiful, is defined for us through advertising: Beautiful people. Beautiful homes. Beautiful cars, etc.

Yet isn't there something within us that realizes a deeper idea of what beauty is? And don't we want that deeper idea as much, or more, than the beauty of superficial things?

Works of art--paintings, sculpture, literature and music--can be exceedingly beautiful. But before the art comes the artist's desire to create a thing of beauty.  And along with that is the artist's desire to share it.

In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.--Michelangelo

The greatest beauty in our human nature is our ability to love, and we share it by loving other people.

Except, maybe we're living a difficult life with difficult people. It's hard to find beauty then. So how do we do it? Can we create beauty for ourselves in our own lives, despite the circumstances?

We have that capability, and it comes directly from God. It comes as grace, and is present even in the ugliest aspects of life. A fire destroys the wood it is made of, yet the heat of the fire warms a room.

If we let go of our bitterness and look objectively at events in our lives--those tragic, or unfair, or hideously ugly events---we have the ability to see something changed within us because of the suffering we have endured, even if it has come close to destroying us. We may be stronger because of it. We may even reach out to help others going through similar situations because of what has happened to us. This is love. This is beauty that is not superficial. This is why a God who loves us permits suffering--and why He allowed His own son to suffer and die on a cross.

At times, life is a story of the Crucifixion--the ugly.
But life is also a story of the Resurrection--the beautiful.

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Copyright 2015 Kaye Park Hinckley.
Photo by kburggraf1 (2015) via Morguefile.com