Pascal once said that we are all made with something like a god-shaped hole, a space in our being that only God can fill. A space that seeks relationship, that creates longing, that looks for something greater, something beautiful. Something that CS Lewis simply called "Joy".
No matter who you are or where you come from, everyone has this urging, this longing, this sixth sense for something higher, something better, something beautiful.
One of the ways this manifests itself is our delight in beautiful things. We all have different ideas of beauty of course - whether it be music, art, nature, or physical appearance. Luckily my wife thinks that bald is beautiful. ;-)
As Christians we have a different sense of what is beautiful. We find beauty in things and places where the world doesn't.
When we go below the surface and dig deep into God's Word, we find that even things like pain, suffering, and even death can be beautiful. Even broken things can become beautiful.
So what is the most beautiful thing in the whole world? This time the sunday school answer is the right one - Jesus. But not just the risen and living Jesus with white robes, flowing hair, and pearly white teeth. It's also the black and blue and bloody Jesus hanging on a cross dying for all the sins of all the world.
For as ugly and painful and terrible as that scene was - it was also good and true and beautiful. That's why we now call the day that it happened Good Friday. Because now, on this side of the resurrection, we're able to look back and see that it was indeed ... something beautiful.
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(ht - tony cook)
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