by Rob Des Cotes

He has made everything beautiful in its time.       Eccl. 3:11

Whether it’s through the stars above or the petals below, creation invites us to speculate why God made such things so aesthetically pleasing.  Why is beauty a necessary component of creation?   What purpose is met whether something is attractive to us or not?

Perhaps one of the reasons beauty exists is to draw us towards the goodness it represents.  Fruit is “pleasing to the eye” before it is good to eat.  The crimson of an apple or the changing yellows of a banana draw attention to their optimal seasons.  We see the same effect of beauty in ourselves when, for example, the righteous character of a person inspires similar possibilities in us.

Beauty also attracts us through the elegance of good order.  We have God-given instincts that can discern whether a particular arrangement is pleasing or not.  We also sense when something is not as it should be.  This same instinct invites us to rectify something that is amiss, and to work towards the restoration of beauty wherever possible.

Our capacity to recognize the inherent beauty of something also elicits in us a sense of care and protection for that beauty, lest it somehow get marred.  If we consider, for example, the natural beauty of infants, it seems obvious that God has created such winsomeness to encourage our care for them at their most vulnerable stage of life.

Many of our earliest instincts for the love of creation were first aroused by its beauty.  And this same love for the beauty of God’s world is our best motivation for the care and protection of our environment.

All those interested in exercising their appreciation for the beauty of creation and art are invited to join us on Sat., Aug. 18th, from 3pm-9pm, for a special arts event at Brooksdale called “Created Life”–lots of art, music and good people to be with. See Created Life for more information.

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Rob Des Cotes lives at A Rocha’s Brooksdale site. He is a spiritual director with Imago Dei who also enjoys landscape photography and contemplating God’s beauty through watercolour painting.