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January 23

The Beauty of God

If we think about God at all, it is usually in terms of God’s helpfulness. And while we may also think of God’s greatness, we hardly ever think of God’s beauty.

St. Augustine makes a helpful connection between nature and the being of God. He writes: “Now all the things that thou hast made are fair, and yet, lo, thou who didst make all things art inexpressibly fairer.”23

God has left us with a variety of traces and symbols that may help us understand who God is. All of these point back to the nature of God.

There is the book of nature. There is the book of books: Holy Scripture. There is the Word made flesh: Jesus Christ. There is the work and witness of the church. There is the book of life in which we may also see the traces of God. And there is our own personal journey marked by God’s generous sustenance and interventions.

With the eyes of faith and with a prayerful heart we may see the signs of God in each of these ways. While Jesus Christ will always be the greater sign than the book of life, and Scripture is clearer about who God is than nature, we can see God is not only forgiving and loving, but also beautiful.

God’s beauty is in his creative power, redeeming grace, the fructifying work of the Spirit, the beauty of nature, human creativity, and in all the ways goodness and wholeness come to us and to our world.

Thought

Beauty and justice do belong together. A just world where goodness is for all, and not merely for some, is where shalom reigns. This is an expression of beauty.