“Earth is crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God…” E.B. Browning
It was definitely not my finest hour. I can make excuses; we were both in graduate school, we were both working multiple jobs, we were both stressed, money was tight. But I was still a knucklehead. Jenni and I had been back from our honeymoon all of one week, and I came home one evening to find my sweet wife joyfully arranging flowers in a crystal vase.
My parents had sent us twenty dollars in a “welcome home” card, and she’d gone out and bought a bright, beautiful bouquet with it. I immediately questioned my new bride’s judgment, stating quite rationally that the $20 could have paid for five or six dinners (at that time we were on an “all-pasta/all-the-time” meal plan). It could have paid for a month of electricity. It could have paid for a month of cable. “And besides,” I concluded, “the flowers will be dead in three days.” (Blank Stare).
After Jenni paused for a moment, she calmly explained that life wasn’t just about paying bills.
Wife: 1, Husband: O
Beauty matters. It matters because it awakens the senses, celebrates life, and elevates the spirit. And if it did nothing but this, it would matter a lot. Can you even imagine a day without beautiful colors, or music, or shapes, or smells? But beauty does something more, and the clue is in its passing nature.
Beauty is always passing away. By nature, it’s transitory. Flowers wilt, sunsets set, blue skies get smoggy or gray, rainbows vanish, scents dissipate, smiles disappear, and even physical beauty diminishes with time. And this is good, because if beauty never faded, we’d worship it. We’d stay fixated on the material, and not see the eternal purpose it ultimately serves. Beauty points to the One Who Created it, the One Who is eternal, the One Who is calling us to a beauty that doesn’t end.
Love beauty, and through it love the One Who thinks you are beautiful.
Question for reflection: What is beautiful to you?
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About Me
- Ross Porter
- Dr. Ross Porter received his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his Master of Divinity (Theology) and Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology) degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary, where he first became interested in the integration of psychology and spirituality. He is a teacher, author, counselor, and consultant, specializing in integrative psychology, virtue ethics and family systems. He has taught at the high school, college, and graduate school levels. Ross is also the Founder and Executive Director of Stillpoint Family Resources, a non-profit organization that offers counseling services to individuals, couples, and families in crisis, with nine different office locations throughout Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange Counties (specific office locations can be found at www.stillpointfamilyresources.org). In 2009, Dr. Porter was named an “Outstanding Angeleno” by the Los Angeles Daily News. Ross and his wife Jennifer have been married for 21 years, and have four beautiful children. John Michael, their son who has Down Syndrome is their first born.
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