What are some of the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen? Something in nature? An act of human and love and kindness? As moms we know that cultivating beauty in our homes brings us and our family peace and joy. Edith Schaeffer says, in her classic The Hidden Art of Homemaking:
A Christian, who realizes he has been made in the image of the Creator and is therefore meant to be creative on a finite level, should certainly have more understanding of his responsibility to treat God’s creation with sensitivity, and should develop his talents to do something to beautify his little spot on the world’s surface. Neighbors, friends and strangers walking by ought to find the Christians’ gardens, farms, estates, schools, hospitals, huts, missions and factories, surrounded by beauty of grass, moss, rocks, fern, bushes, trees, flowers and vegetables, planted and cared for with an expression of originality and artistic planning on some scale. A Christian individual or organization should not move into a property and turn it into a shambles. The opposite should be true. . .
One might say, but my time is very limited. I don’t have time for beauty or art. Mrs. Schaeffer anticipates your objection:
Is it a waste of time to bring forth this sort of beauty, or to fulfil your artistic talents in this sort of way? Is it more important to use that time talking about the living God? It seems to me the beauty which causes strangers passing by to stop and enjoy a garden, provides a background and already ‘says something’ which gives an emphasis to what it is important to say. Of course one must speak of the historic and prophetic facts which people need to hear, the truth about God and the universe. But this makes much more sense in a setting which shows that action on the basis of truth really does fit in with the universe as it is, and was created.
We share our faith in the beauty that surrounds us, and is created by us. We are not exempt from sharing truth with our neighbors, but truth is also shared by how we live. Do our homes need to look like a magazine? No, nowhere does the Bible indicate anything of the sort. But your efforts to tame the chaos and bring beauty into your little corner of the world are a witness to an ugly and superficial culture. Ours is a ministry of restoration. We bring order to chaos, and that is creating beauty.
In A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the sublime and Beautiful, Edmund Burke proposes that the beautiful is the part of nature that appeals to our senses and the sublime is the part that latches to our spirits. When people speak of the objectivity or subjectivity of beauty, it is more often than not that they are speaking of the objectivity of the sublime, as no two souls are the same and so what is sublime for one soul will most likely differ from another person’s ideal.
Beauty has no real functional purpose in society, yet is always sought out. Take crown molding in a house for example; it has no function, it is not necessary for the structural integrity of a house, yet many people pay quite a lot of money to have it installed. Art galleries, murals, and many other typical things that can be seen on any given day display this needless yet necessary aspect of beauty. Art is always the first thing that is added once a society has gained what it needs to function.
Essentially we can observe that all man-made things that are truly beautiful, whether mathematically, symmetrical, or otherwise, have a design and a designer. For example, no one looks at a Michelangelo sculpture or a piece created by Beethoven and assumes it was accidentally made. Not only would doing so be an insult to the creator, but it would just be quite an ignorant assumption. Therefore why should someone look at beauty in nature and assume it was accidentally formed? This assumption, if false, would be an insult to the Creator of the vast beauty we call Earth. (Summer Kazim)
Robert Swinburne says that “if the universe came into existence without being created by God, there is no reason to suppose that it would be a beautiful universe. The argument has force on the assumption with which I am happy and commend to my readers that beauty is an objective matter, that there are truths about what is beautiful and what is not”. God made everyone and everything with a purpose, which is to glorify him. The beauty on earth is but a glimpse – a shadow – of what will be in heaven. The longing for beauty and the sublime awe people feel when gazing at beautiful things is almost a second-hand longing for the most beautiful object of worship, a foretaste of glory divine.
Beauty is in our words. Poetry, stories, and songs have been a source of beauty for every high culture in history. An encouraging person creates beauty all around them. I love what Lynna at Homeschooling Without Training Wheels says about beauty. It is difficult to talk about because it is squishy. “We have far more confidence in a list of vocabulary words about the solar system or a chart of multiplication facts. We can list virtues and habits we want to instill in our children. But without beauty, that’s really all we have: lists and charts.
Beauty is what gives dimension to truth and goodness, what makes truth and goodness experiential rather than simply intangible, abstract concepts. Sometimes we find it hard to add beauty, because we ourselves are out of practice adding and enjoying beauty in our own lives. Our culture prizes efficiency. Everything must have a quantifiable result. But when was the last time you took a moment just to enjoy something, just to think about a big idea?”
Two easy applications are speaking beautiful, encouraging, life-giving words and enjoying beautiful music. Beauty is in our words. Poetry, stories, and songs have been a source of beauty for every high culture in history. Sally Clarkson points out that:
“But if we were to look at the Word, Jesus himself, we would see intentional encouragement. “Peter, you are the rock. Thomas, a man in whom there is no guile. The centurion–no one has had faith like you. Mary, your story will be told about you for all times.” Jesus always took time to show love to initiate words of life–even to believe in Peter and encourage him as he was about to rebel against him. Peter, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you……” An encouraging person creates beauty all around them. We want to be with such a person. Practice saying encouraging words to your family!”
So, what can we do to show children the beauty of the Lord? What I the one thing that brings together the beauty of mathematics and words? Music. But not just any music. Let us think critically about what music has time proven to demonstrative of the beauty of God?
In his article Does Bach’s Music Prove the Existence of God? Trevin Wax of Gospel Coalition points out: “Music isn’t just something physical and material. There’s something beyond the notes on the page. In great works of art, we touch the edges of the transcendent because the best of our human creations are consciously or unconsciously reaching for the true, good, and beautiful.
Music, like other art forms, resembles the beauty we see in nature. These aesthetic experiences are like cracks in the sidewalks of secularism, through which shoots of grass and the occasional flower appear. They’re pinholes in the ceiling of immanence, laying waste the claim that nothing exists beyond this material world. They’re whispers in the wind that send a chill up the spine and tell us we’re not alone. There’s something more there.” That is a beautiful way to say that when music touches our soul, we are experiencing a glimpse of heaven that leaves us desiring more of our Creator God.
Beauty is not what your kid knows, but what they care about. I can only give you a few applications. The creation of beauty in your own family life is something you have to ponder and seek the Lord about. God created beauty out of love, and so must we. Create habits in your home that take these heady, philosophical ideas of beauty and implement them in the every day.
“Truth relates to the mind, goodness to the will, and beauty to the heart, feelings, desires, or imagination. These are the only three things that we never get bored with, and never will, for all eternity, because they are attributes of God.” — C.S. Lewis
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