Life can be hard. All you have to do is glance at the news
and you find volumes of personal and community pain, and problems without
solutions. Catastrophes, accidental and intentional, natural and manmade, fill
up the headlines until we can’t bear to read anymore.
It’s no wonder people don’t believe in God, at least not one who is loving and just. There’s just too much heartbreak, too much destruction, too much pain. An honest heart needs to work through those issues.
But if we’re honest, we must also deal with beauty. Not a beauty that is subjective, one we might argue over like art, or music or a Miss Universe pageant. There are things in this world that make us stop, stare and wonder.
White puffy clouds on a sapphire sky, wind rustling leaves, the rippling of a brook, giant craggy peaks and green rolling hills, the sun lighting up soft greens in the ocean and the deep metallic blues, a child’s infectious laughter.
They are colors, textures and sounds that warm our hearts and calm us. They bring us joy, recharge us and few would deny their beauty. The opposite is true, orange haze around L.A., diapers and syringes on a beach and the shriek of a child in pain all repulse us.
Why?
Why does nature enchant us while its destruction unnerve us? Is this some Darwinian mechanism to help us choose the best places for survival? You might think so, until you realize the view from the top of Everest is mesmerizing.
In the beauty of nature I see God. I can’t escape it. And I believe the love for it was placed in our hearts, so we would search for him and care for it. The pain on this planet can make us doubt the goodness of God, but for me, its beauty makes his existence, undeniable.
It’s no wonder people don’t believe in God, at least not one who is loving and just. There’s just too much heartbreak, too much destruction, too much pain. An honest heart needs to work through those issues.
But if we’re honest, we must also deal with beauty. Not a beauty that is subjective, one we might argue over like art, or music or a Miss Universe pageant. There are things in this world that make us stop, stare and wonder.
White puffy clouds on a sapphire sky, wind rustling leaves, the rippling of a brook, giant craggy peaks and green rolling hills, the sun lighting up soft greens in the ocean and the deep metallic blues, a child’s infectious laughter.
They are colors, textures and sounds that warm our hearts and calm us. They bring us joy, recharge us and few would deny their beauty. The opposite is true, orange haze around L.A., diapers and syringes on a beach and the shriek of a child in pain all repulse us.
Why?
Why does nature enchant us while its destruction unnerve us? Is this some Darwinian mechanism to help us choose the best places for survival? You might think so, until you realize the view from the top of Everest is mesmerizing.
In the beauty of nature I see God. I can’t escape it. And I believe the love for it was placed in our hearts, so we would search for him and care for it. The pain on this planet can make us doubt the goodness of God, but for me, its beauty makes his existence, undeniable.
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