I recently read a book called “Severe Mercy” by Sheldon Vanauken, and while I won’t go into the book much here, one thing this book made me think about more is ‘Beauty’.
Vanauken spends a lot of time talking about he and his wife, and the joy they found in beauty and in love.
They enjoy walks; at dawn, at dusk, in the night, in forests, by rivers, along cobble-stoned lanes. They appreciate the water; oceans, lakes, rivers. They appreciate the sky; blue skies, clouds, storms, rainbows. They appreciate love. They appreciate many different things in which they find beauty.
And it made me begin to think about the last time that I saw something that I thought was beautiful – in the real, meaningful sense of the word. Something filled with such deepness of beauty, that you may perhaps be shocked to see it, or perhaps a tear might spring to your eye.
I realised with dismay that it has been a long time since I have thought about beauty.
The lifestyle of most of the population of Japan is one of crazy work, family and social pressures. There is simply not time to stop and appreciate beauty. While I am not Japanese, and as a single person, have a lot less family responsibilities than others, my life too seems to be ran at this ridiculously fast pace. I just went through my diary, and the last day I had an entire day of doing nothing – not going out, not working, not going to church, not seeing anyone, was on January 21st. Today is June 4th. That is crazy. But here, it is normal. Crazy and normal.
When life is lived at such a pace, where is the time to look for beauty just for the sake of finding it?
So I began to think about the things in my life, that perhaps had beauty in them, and I had not been able to see it. I began searching through my memories, for glimpses of beauty, of joy, and of love. For beauty, joy and love, are somehow inextricably linked. Can beauty be devoid of joy? Joy of beauty? Beauty or joy devoid of love? These three lead to and exist because of the others.
I remembered back to the weekend – where I met a 15 year old girl, volunteering with me – how we spent the day getting to know each other, laughing, and connecting. I recognised the beauty in friendship – especially a new, unexpected one. The joy of laughter.
The beauty of harmonies sung powerfully – filling me with such joy that I got goosebumps all over and was holding my breath without realising.
And mostly I remembered the simple beauty of Jesus.
His life, given for me. The beauty of the cross – not in what it is, an horrific method of execution – but in what it represents. If love and joy come from beauty, and Jesus brings me love and joy through his death, then surely the Cross is the only true beautiful thing that there has ever been in history.
Beauty is enhanced all the more when found in a surprising place, and who can think of anywhere more shocking than the Cross.
3 Comments
June 4, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Severe Mercy is an amazing book!
Kudos!
June 5, 2008 at 12:38 am
Heya, thanks heaps for the email/comment.
I guess my honesty and openness is partly a need for accountability. Whether or not people actually follow what I share, I have it there as a good reminder that one person may well read it and pull me up on it some time down the track.
It’s ironic with the things that I’m sharing and challenging people with because it’s the very thing that I’m struggling with, right now.
Look forward to the news…
(Oh, next time you try and comment if it gives you any error messages next time, let me know.)
June 9, 2008 at 7:03 am
Hi Mel,
Thanks for your thoughts on the book ‘Severe Mercy’ about appreciating beauty in this world. I’ve been to the National Celtic Festival over the long weekend and the idea of seeing God’s work in natural beauty was a strong theme at a spirituality discussion there. My interpretation was that occasions of solitude in a beautiful place and experiences like witnessing birth (?love) or death represented Thin Places between the physical and spiritual worlds where you could be more aware of God’s presence. Hopefully not heresy.
My single life also seems like a ratrace, with lots of demands and responsibilities and not enough quiet time to be alone with God, appreciating everything that He has done and the beauty He has created all around us. A lot to praise and thank Him for.
Best wishes,
Stephen