I subscribe to the Big Picture blog. I love it. They publicize a collection of photos a couple times a week, usually connected to a news story in some way. Being a visual learner, I love this way of getting my “news’”.
This week there is a post that contains some of the photos submitted to National Geographic’s International Photography Contest 20o9 (above is one of them). Take a look at the whole collection if you have a minute. I could look at God’s creation and its beauty forever. There is no doubt to me that God values beauty. The Psalmist says it this way:
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. –Psalm 19:1 (ESV)
Creation speaks—no screams—about God. I try to remember that the beauty all around me is not the end, though. It is a means, to point to the Giver—God, Himself. I need to interact with the Creation not because the Creation ultimately satisfies (it doesn’t), but because it points me to the Creator (Who DOES ultimately satisfy). So many of my own troubles come because I stop short at loving the gifts God gives me (food, technology, drink, friends) and forget they are not enough to fill the sin-hole in me. Only the Giver of those gifts can do that. And He wants to!
NT Wright in “Simply Christian” (SUCH a good book!) puts it this way:
“The beauty of the natural world is, at best, the echo of a voice, not the voice itself.”
This might sound like bad news. It is anything but.
This tells me that the beauty around us—and it is at times SPECTACULAR—is only a hint, a glimpse, a tiny spec of the glory that is God’s. AND HE WANTS ME TO HAVE HIM. Unbelievable grace. Open wide, friend.
