In Search of Beauty

Is beauty an image? A reflection? A perception? An emanation? An illumination?

Ralph Waldo Emerson was definitely onto something when he wrote:  

No reason can be asked or given why the soul seeks beauty. 

Beauty, in its largest and profoundest sense, is one expression for the universe. 

God is the All-Fair. 

Truth, and goodness, and beauty, are but different faces of the same All. 

But beauty in nature is not ultimate. 

It is the herald of inward and eternal beauty...

And I would add: 

This herald of an inward and eternal beauty calls to the souls of men 

to come and enter into a relationship with the author of all beauty,

the Creator Himself. 
For we are His image bearers. 

We are beings made in His image and stamped with an indelible longing 

for a grace and beauty that would transform us from within...

Can I get an Amen?

Some Children See Him

 Some children see him lily white,

The Baby Jesus born this night.

Some children see him lily white,

With tresses soft and fair.

Some children see him bronzed and brown,

The Lord of Heav'n to earth come down.

Some children see him bronzed and brown,

With dark and heavy hair.

Some children see him almond-eyed,

This Savior whom we kneel beside.

Some children see him almond-eyed

With skin of golden hue.

Some children see him dark as they,

Sweet Mary's Son, to whom we pray.

Some children see him dark as they,

And ah, they love him, too.

The children in each different place.

Will see the Baby Jesus' face,

Like theirs, but bright with heav'nly grace

And filled with Holy light.

O lay aside each earthly thing,

And with thy heart as offering,

Come worship now the infant King,

'Tis love that's born tonight.

Retelling of an Old Old Story

   Do yourself a favor this Christmas. I don't care how old you are or how much you think you know, give yourself permission to become a child again. Be willing to shed your sophistication, your urbanity, your intellectual prowess or your supposed maturity to enter once again into the wonder that is Christmas. Let go of that jaded, self-serving self. The world of mystery is as real to children as the air they breathe. I dare you to become the child again. It's is absolutely imperative if you are to understand what happened then and what is happening now.

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  This is a story overflowing with the Glory of God. And I am not talking about Santa Claus. I am talking about Emmanuel, the mystery of God With Us. It's a story that can hold your heart captive if you let it. This is no ordinary story.

   This is a story about a King, the most powerful and most amazing King the world has ever known. This King is more powerful than you can imagine. He, alone of all the Kings that ever were and ever will be, has the power to create: to make something out of nothing. He created all that is natural in our world. Natural means not made by man. He made the perfect mix of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide and other gases into the air that we breathe. He is the first scientist. This King understands proportions perfectly. He made the bird to fly and the man to walk and the cheetah to run like the wind. 
    This King created mankind and the marvelous and complex bodies which we inhabit. He breathed life into the first man, Adam, and then drew the woman, Eve, from Adam's body. He gave to each human being something inside of us that would always remind us of our Creator, the King. He gave us a soul. The soul is the part of us that makes us different from all of the other creatures on the earth. Our soul is like a highway to God, a road that calls us back to Him, and forward with Him, and helps us desire to walk daily beside Him. In short, our soul is filled with longing for Him. When the King calls to us and we meet Him, we feel complete in a way that satisfies our deepest longings. 
     It is important to understand that Adam and Eve were designed to live in perfect harmony with God. That means that everything between God and the man and the woman was "in tune," just like the words and melody of beautiful song. 

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Then something terrible happened. The Man and the Woman could not believe that everything was just as wonderful as the King said that it was. They listened to some terrible advice from a serpent, and it caused some things to happen that have made things so very hard since that time. 
    When Adam and Eve first came into the world, no one got sick, no one died, no one got mad, or lost his or her temper. Everything was peaceful and calm and happy. There was even no winter. Can you imagine that? No frosty fingers, frosty toes, or frosty hearts.

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But then something horrible happened that changed everything for everyone, even you and me. Adam and Eve ate from the apple in the garden, and things have been going wrong ever since. People and children are selfish and greedy and hurt each other. People and children get sick and die. It is not an easy world.
   Thankfully this King was not satisfied to let things just keep going downhill. From the beginning, He has had a plan to restore things, to make things right. He planned to send His Son, a King of the same family, a King just like Him in every way, to set things right. And that is what He did. 

Part II to follow...