Beauty

I just watched an interview with Phillip Yancey, author and editor of Christianity Today.  He described growing up in a toxic church (riddled with racism and legalism) and walking away from faith as a young man.  The interviewer asked him, "What was it that brought you back?" 

It wasn't the Bible.  It wasn't getting into a different church.  It wasn't the fear of hell or the promise of heaven.  Yancey said, "There were three things.  One, the beauty of creation.  Two, classical music.  Three, romantic love."

It was beauty that brought Yancey back to faith.  He said those three things were everywhere- he felt he was surrounded by art, and because of that, he wanted to meet the artist.  He said, "The worst moment in an atheist's life is being filled with a profound sense of gratitude and having no one to thank." 

I agree with Yancey.  His story reminded me of something I read about Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the Gestapo under Hitler in Nazi Germany.  He was as cold and cruel a man as ever walked this earth- ruthless, merciless; a man with no conscience.  However, he was an accomplished violinist.  Nearly every night he would get out his violin and play beautifully for hours.  People who watched him play noticed that he wept and wept as he played, tears running down his cheeks as he created something beautiful on the violin.

Why did this terrible human being cry as he played music?  I believe it was because he was being reminded of beauty, and it tore his soul apart.  Music is beautiful, and it reminds us that there is art all around us.  For there to be art around us, there has to be an Artist.  I believe Heydrich came face to face with that Artist every night who reminded him of how dark and terrible his soul was.  I believe the tears he cried were for himself.  I believe the tears were from the innermost part of his being- the image of God he was created in that had been shoved down and trampled on and its existence denied, yet still lived and shone through beauty. 

Heydrich was not created to be a monster.  He was created to be an artist; someone who reflected the beauty of his Creator through producing works of beauty.  He shoved that purpose down into the dark recesses of his soul during the day, but at nighttime it came out in the form of music.  He couldn't escape the image of God that he was created in- an image that was created to make and enjoy beauty.

It is beauty that draws me to God as well.  The beauty of His creation, the beauty of music, the beauty of love, the beauty of grace and forgiveness and friendship that surrounds me every day.  I would imagine that the sight of the Grand Teton mountains or the Grand Canyon has created more believers than any sermon or Bible study.  Ten seconds of silence before a raging waterfall has convinced more people of God's existence than ten hours of sermons. 

Open your eyes to the beauty around you.  You'll find the supreme Artist everywhere you look.