Abraham's Eyes | Part IV | Beauty

What Attracted you today? Which of your senses did a double-take? 

Maybe you heard a song on the radio and reached to turn the volume up. Perhaps you paused to take a big inhale when you walked outside and were met with the rusty scent of warm rain hitting the pavement. Was it the captivating colors of a Red-Bellied Woodpecker at your bird-feeder? 

For me, it was the comforting embrace of holding my mug of freshly-ground Ethiopian Sidamo to my nose, the pause and small offering of gratitude before taking the first sip. It was the sudden stop of my fingers clacking away on the keyboard to listen to the sound of our cat purring in the chair next to me. It was lifting my eyes from my computer screen to watch the golden glow of the sun kissing my Window Tree good morning.

Beauty. 

I would offer a definition, but Beauty is not something that can be defined. It can only be experienced. 

I've been considering the phrase, 'Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder' over the past few days. A few bland AI commentaries would tell you that this phrase means 'what one person finds Beautiful may not appeal to another.' 

I suppose this sounds true enough, but I happened upon another Perspective that feels a bit Truer: 'Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder' means that Beauty doesn't exist on its own, but is created by Beholding. Less of an adjective to describe something, more of a verb - an Action that you take part in. 

Jesus spoke of both kinds of Beauty - Beauty you observe with your senses, and Beauty that you do. Here are the stories recorded by a disciple named Matthew:

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like white-washed tombs which look Beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean." (Matthew 23:13, NIV)

A couple chapters later...

"While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to Him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. 'Why this waste?' they asked. 'This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.'

Aware of this, Jesus said to them, 'Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a Beautiful thing to me." (Matthew 26:6-10) 

Before setting out to explore Lincoln's life during our visit to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, we stopped in at the special exhibit gallery featuring the work of Richard Hunt. Upon entering the exhibit, we were met with the words: 'Beautiful & Terrible Things.'  

Richard Hunt belonged to a Chicago family that fled racial terror in the South in a movement called The Great Migration, following Lincoln's assassination. At nineteen years old, Richard created his first welded sculpture in the basement of his father's barbershop. The sculpture 'Hero's Head' was galvanized into existence 70 years ago in Active Response to his childhood friend and neighbor's lynching. 

Emmett Till was only fourteen years old when he was killed after being accused of flirting with a white woman while visiting family in Mississippi. The open casket funeral displayed Emmett's gnarled and mutilated face. Images of the ugly scene started saturating the press, outraging Black communities and igniting a new generation of civil rights movement leaders. 

'Hero's Head' was completed less than a year after Emmett's death from scrap metal that Richard collected from the streets on the South side of Chicago. Creation as an Act against injustice - I think this is the kind of Beauty that would stop Jesus in His tracks.