“What is beauty?” – a thought.
At school yesterday a question came up. “What is beauty?”
And, since we’d rather discuss this than finish class, we spent the rest of the period trying to logic out an answer. What is beauty? This post is the product of my meanderings.
Okay. When you think of beautiful things, what comes to mind? Mountains, maybe. Sparkling water. A bride. Flowers. Nature. The sky. Et cetera.
If you look up ‘beautiful’ on dictionary.com, it comes up with:
adjective
‘having beauty; possessing qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind;
excellent of its kind;
wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying.’
dictionary.com “beautiful”
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But isn’t there more to it than that? Isn’t there a deep, gut level reaction when we encounter something truly beautiful?
Often we correlate something ‘beautiful’ to mean simply ‘pleasing to the eye’.
But what about things like sacrifice, pain, and war? Is there a place for beauty, even in the midst of such ugly things?
Something deep inside me wants to argue that beauty can be found most everywhere, if you look in the right way.
Trying to remember our entire line of reasoning now is hurting my brain – but here is what we came up with in the end.
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“Beauty is something in its rawest, purest and most vulnerable state.”
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Is this the essence of beauty?
Just a thought. I won’t expound on this any more.
Do you agree with this statement?
If not, how would you define beauty?
Comment below to give me your thoughts. I’d love to hear.
Huge shoutout to Caelie Jones for providing these stunning photographs. Thank you again.
About The Author
Abby
Abby is a teenaged writer who loves using her words for Jesus, to seek and point out beauty in the ordinary. When she isn't writing, you can find her jamming on her guitar, which she fondly calls "Raymond Fender the First", sitting on porches, or reading.
Hmm. Good thoughts. Much to ponder on, Abby.
A thought on your thought: you say that beauty can be found in such circumstances as sacrifice, pain, and war. I wholeheartedly agree. But does that mean that sacrifice or war or pain is, in and of itself, beautiful? Or rather, does our good God allow good things to bless us even amidst the sorrow and heartache if this world? I’m not sure that war is beautiful, but I know that the Lord can bring beauty even from the ashes.
I thought of a different (or perhaps merely another) definition for true beauty:
Anything that points to or reflects the Beautiful One.
We serve a beautiful God. Anything— and I would probably say everything— that is beautiful is ultimately from the Lord.
Just a thought. Do with it as you will.
I love reading your articles. Well done. Keep writing, and keep glorifying God.
Thanks for your comment, Henry!
Hmm, those are good points. I would definitely agree that war and pain themselves are NOT beautiful – in fact they can be very ugly. When I ask if war can be beautiful, I’m getting more to the thought of the hope and goodness that shine through despite the evil that surrounds it.
I like that definition- I’d agree that everything beautiful ultimately comes from God – and THAT, I’d think, is the purest and most vulnerable form of something – the part that came from the Creator, before it was marred or covered up by the world. And when we catch glimpses of the true beauty at the core of a thing, it really strikes us deeply. Just thoughts.
Thanks so much, Henry, I appreciate it! Thanks for the food for thought!
This is a very interesting idea! Our ‘word’ of the semester has been beauty, so it was very cool to see what you had to say about it. I would say that- off the top of my head- beauty is something or someone being or doing exactly what God created it to. A tree being a tree, a sunset lighting up the sky, rain falling, a math problem working out so logically- all those things are complying with what God designed them to do. And that is beautiful.
Thank you for writing this post! It did get me thinking.
Thanks, Ella!
Those are really good thoughts! I love that. When something is fully itself and fully alive, it is beautiful.
Thanks for your comment!