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Limitless Beauty

Limitless Beauty

 “Can you fathom the mysteries of God?  Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?  They are higher than the heavens–what can you do?  They are deeper than the depths of the grave–what can you know?  Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.” (Job 11:7-9)

     If my memory holds true, my college Art History professor taught us that Edgar Degas quipped, “Without a touch of ugliness, there is no beauty.”  It has been 20 years since then.  I am starting to doubt my memory.  I can’t find such a quote attributed to Degas on this thing called the internet, and if that’s the case, then perhaps I’ve gotten it wrong with the passage of time. 

     Nevertheless, this statement captured my imagination as a young artist trying to find my visual vocabulary.  It offered me grace for inaccuracies and freedom for risk taking.  Charcoal and pencils, conte and brushes needed both as they were employed within my hand!

     Any person who has ever tried to create something beautiful is acquainted with the experience of missing one’s ideal of perfection.  My father recently received a touching gift from a friend who is a skilled wood carver.  Included with the gift was a warm note that contained both explanations of the work and confessions of imperfections!  Likewise, each painting I create has passages that I wish were better described or more deftly executed intermingled with the areas that I rejoice in.  

     This is a hallmark of the human condition.  Imperfection.  Missing the mark.  Every Titanic has a fatal flaw.  Every Babel, an empty boast.  Yet, as followers of Christ and worshipers of the one true God, we can behold beauty with no marring.  We can gaze upon glory untarnished.  We can worship a God who is perfect in every way, all else excelling, and infinitely so.  

     As we contemplate God in all His greatness, we will readily find that His person and ways, His works and words offer to us a unending depth and breadth of beauty to explore.  And so we stand in awe along with Zophar, one of Job’s friends, when he exclaimed in wonder, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God?”  We behold infinite beauty, without any ugliness. 

     And that is the essence of Beauty and the Beholder:  an ever-present call to stand in awe of Almighty God, “who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16), whose “works are perfect, and all His ways are just” (Deuteronomy 32:4).

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