Afterwords -- week 47
"Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything." (Hebrews 3:3-4 NIV)
November 12, 2022
Dear friends,
We recently drove to Asheville and spent a day touring the Biltmore Estate. The house, artwork, gardens, conservatory, and grounds are stunning, situated on 8,000 acres with views of the Great Smoky mountains. There was so much beauty to take in, both natural and built. The architect and the landscape designer both had the passion to build for sublime, timeless beauty. I think they achieved that in large measure.
BEAUTY. Our postmodern society would say that notions of beauty, along with truth and goodness, are merely subjective, without any objective reality -- that they are only statements of individual feeling and preference. There's some truth to that, I suppose -- I certainly don't resonate with every artifice of the "gilded age." Feelings and preferences vary, but maybe not as much as we think. All the people I saw on the estate -- young, old, international -- seemed also to enjoy the beauty around them. In appreciating art and architecture we do sense (and often act) as if there is some universal value in them, in part perhaps, but objectively for sure. Most of us still love castles and gardens and fountains and good art. We don't seem to outgrow that.
MAKING THINGS OF BEAUTY, and appreciating things of beauty, I believe, are a manifestation of being created in the image of God. We know in our hearts that there is something good which is outside of and beyond us. According to the Bible, there is true beauty, goodness, and truth, which we can perceive and feel. God himself is a creator and artisan. He is likened to a builder, gardener, potter, and artist (Gen 1-2; John 15:1; Heb 3:3-6; Eph 2:10). We enjoy seeing God's good design, and we also want to make things, like gardens, art, and buildings, which are beautiful. We're just made that way.
UNSEEN BEAUTY. Of course, this does not mean we all see beauty in the same light and in the same measure. Learning to appreciate art is a noble undertaking. But some things are seen only as God gives us grace. King David prayed, "One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple" (Ps 27:4 NIV). And the Apostle Paul wrote, "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor 4:6). Think of "glory" as being a synonym for beauty. The beauty of creation should lead us to seek the beauty of God himself.
RECENT ARTICLES.
-- "To be grateful is a human trait. More than that—to be grateful is to be human. For in gratitude we acknowledge that we are not isolated, autonomous individuals but are dependent upon others, a dependency in which we find joy and for which we are thankful." ~ Carl Trueman, on living in an age of ingratitude.
-- "What this bias [in academia] has produced is two generations of college teachers who don’t realize their bias. They got a narrow education that they trusted was the broadest one. They genuinely don’t know that another critical tradition besides the progressive/transgressive one exists." Read Mark Bauerlein on "A Tradition of Anti-traditionalists."
-- Why do people like fountain pens so much? Here's a few reasons.
LISTENING TO...
-- "Sometimes By Step," Shane and Shane's nice rendition of the song by Rich Mullins.
-- "Build a House," by Megan Tibbits. We are enjoying the music of this new (to us) artist, who is singer, songwriter, guitarist, and harpist.
FINAL QUOTE.
"True art is reverent imitation of God." (Tryon Edwards)
That's it for week 47!
Sandy
Image credit: my photos of the Biltmore estate, November 2022. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
