Our idea of who or what is beautiful is heavily influenced by our cultural standards. Too often, we confuse beauty with perfection. In his book, The Jesus Way, Eugene Peterson writes:
Beauty is commonly trivialized in our culture, whether secular or ecclesial. It is reduced to decoration, equated with the insipidities of “pretty” or “nice.” But beauty is not an add-on, not an extra, not a frill. Beauty is fundamental. Beauty is not what we indulge ourselves in after we have taken care of the serious business of making a living, or getting saved, or winning the lottery. It is evidence of and witness to the inherent wholeness and goodness of who God is and the way God works.
When something catches my eye, it is often the unique, quirky little details that make it beautiful. Like the wrinkles in an old wizened face, or the neon colors of the darting fish, or the contrast of the white aspen bark against the cerulean blue sky. If everything in creation could achieve some uniform standard of perfection, we would find it boring. It seems to be variety and diversity that most often attract us.
Beauty is mysterious. It doesn’t give us answers or lend itself to a simple definition, but it does woo us, like an echo of God. If we pay attention, it reveals a desire, a yearning for something more. In Whistling in the Dark, Frederick Buechner describes beauty as, “…something you never get your fill of. It leaves you always aching with longing, not so much for more of the same as for whatever it is...”
Beauty helps us become attentive to new ways of living in the world. As John O’Donohue (Beauty the Invisible Embrace) observes, “We were created to be creators. At its deepest heart, creativity is meant to serve and evoke beauty.”
So keep creating, adding beauty to the world. We all need “the echo of God” that uniquely lives in you.