“One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.”
— Psalm 27:4 (NIV)
“Grace and peace
be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”
— 2 Peter 1:2 (NIV)
Beauty is all around us, and it is
there in abundance.
We could be forgiven, however, for
not seeing what is patently there, before our eyes, every single moment of our
existence. And just because we may at times not see it doesn’t mean it is not
there.
Choosing to believe in the beauty,
especially when it isn’t apparent, is the idea of faith that fuels joy. Beauty beheld
causes this intrinsic happiness; a spiritual sense of abundance of soul. Abundance
epitomises and beholds beauty, whilst beauty is grateful for abundance’s depth
of rigour of integrity. In underpinning each other, both beauty and abundance multiply
each other’s vibrancy.
Abundance, of this view, is not
simply a concept of quantity. As a concept it rises up into the realms of the
concept of beauty. Abundance is a flourishing. It is all pervasive, all
alluring, all encapsulating. It is the theory of muchness eradicating the
default state of defeat.
Joy wells up in the soul that experiences
abundance and sees beauty. They are certainly there. They are irrefutable
states ever-present and mingled within the logic of existence. But we must
choose to experience and see them. And that is faith — the most illogical thing
to anyone who simply must see and
touch what they cannot. Frustration can be their only end!
It takes faith to believe in the
generosity of God who showers us with abundance and beauty everywhere. And what
is the point to a life that never quite rises to such a height? God calls to us
daily to ascend beauty and abundance, making them spiritual possessions by
embodying hope.
We must believe in the good, and
the power of that good to overcome atrocity. It does us no good otherwise to
deny the beauty and abundance, for there is only despair and a vacuous dolour
otherwise.
As we choose to dwell in the house
of the Lord, we gaze with wonder on His beauty in creation. Everywhere we see
Him at work in the natural world we see the marks of nature that bear His workmanship.
Every time we insist on choosing to
see God’s goodness in the heartache of the world we become that force for good.
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