It's good to think more deeply about the mercies of God in times of crisis. To help guide us in this effort, we'll consider Paul David Tripp's collection of meditations from Psalm 27 called "A Shelter in the Time of Storm." You can get your own copy on Amazon here.

...that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD.

Psalm 27:4

Many people today, even Christians, scoff at the idea of objective beauty. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," right? But not really. We fail to see beauty in many places we should and we sometimes call beautiful those things which are not. Tripp's poem in this meditation presents some ideas about forming a theology of beauty that are good for us each to consider. What do we really believe about beauty? 

Beauty
What is
beauty?
How is
beauty?
Where is
beauty?
Is beauty without a
beginning?
Is beauty without an
end?
Could it be that there are
only
two kinds of beauty?
In this world there is
Source beauty
and
Reflected beauty.
Source beauty is
true beauty
pure beauty
timeless beauty
independent beauty
definitional beauty
divine beauty.
Reflected beauty is
shadow beauty
tainted beauty
dependent beauty
ill-defined beauty
creation beauty.
All sin is sin against
beauty.
Idolatry puts
Reflected beauty
in
Source beauty's place.
Sin hammers reflected
beauty
into the shape of
ugly.
Sin then names ugly
beautiful.
The more distant it is from its
source
the less beauty there is to be
found
in reflected beauty.
Source beauty is not to be
manipulated
or
ignored.
It is only
ever
eternally to be
worshipped.
In the
Incarnation
the feet of beauty
touched earth
to reveal
beauty
to teach
beauty
to restore
beauty
to help beauty be
seen
experienced
worshipped
loved
in order that
in the hearts of men
Source beauty
would be restored
to its
rightful place.
But
I still live
in the middle of
a beauty war.
And in the
fog
of the
conflict
I do not see beauty
clearly.
With battle scarred
eyes
I look at what is
ugly
and I think I see
beauty.
Please heal
my eyes.
Please restore
my heart
so I may
gaze no where else
but
see
love
worship
the beauty
that only
ever
emanates
from you.

Questions to Consider

The questions are Tripp's. I included my answers in case they're helpful to read.

1. Is there a place in your life where you are tempted to look at what God says is ugly and to see beauty?

- I think our hyper-sexualized culture makes this a challenge for all of us. Whether evaluating physical beauty in ourselves or others we get on the wrong track when we buy into the world's definitions. 

2. When do you tend to get so captivated by the "reflected beauty" of the created world that you are blind to the "source beauty" of the glory of the God who made it?

- I don't know. It's a question worth thinking more about.