The Ineffability of God's Beauty

The book Eyes Wide Open, among other things, is a treatise on beauty. It concerns itself with many aspects of beauty including beauty's origins and essence. For author Steve DeWitt, the essence and origin of all things beautiful and beauty itself is God.

In discussing the beauty of creation-the vastness of the universe or the intricate design of a water crystal-DeWitt makes a clear assertion: "Creation is beautiful precisely because its Creator is beautiful" (15). That is, things are beautiful as they relate to God because "God defines beauty by His very essence. He is the source and standard of all beauty" (15).

However, God's beauty causes us some problems. And one of those problems is that beauty in general, and specifically God's beauty, is difficult to understand. God's beauty, like many things about Him, is ineffable. Ineffable is an appropriate term; it means beyond comprehension or inexpressible. The author continues, "A popular phrase captures the ineffability of God's beauty: It blows our minds. We cannot see God's beauty (God is spirit); we can not evaluate it (God transcends humanity's ability to critique); and we cannot comprehend it (God is infinite, we are not)" (16).

But despite beauty's mind stretching effect, we are still drawn to it, compelled to discover and apprehend it. This is seen nowhere more profoundly than in our searching and longing (whether we recognize it or not) for God:

We seek out these expressions of beauty because what we can see and comprehend draws us to wonders too awesome not too enjoy. Their ineffability is entwined with their desirability. What I cannot see is mysteriously interesting to me and compels me to look all the more. The same is true of God's beauty and attributes.He is more than we can know and beyond our capacity to absorb. Our finitude limits our comprehension, but what we can see and understand draws us to wonder-which is the prelude to worship.

An expression and reflection of God

I have recently began reading the highly-acclaimed book, published in 2012, by Steve DeWitt: Eyes Wide Open: Enjoying God in Everything. In the introduction DeWitt introduces what I suspect is a key theme for his book and one that resonates with me. Consider the following excerpt:

I sometimes wonder how it is possible that our culture and society could have missed this truth on such a massive scale. When every popular beauty and pleasure in our culture shouts that God is beautiful, how can so many millions of people completely miss the point? How can they not hear? How can they look and listen and touch and taste and not get it? 

What if the Grand Canyon isn’t just a hole in the ground but an expression of divine vastness? God’s self-portrait draws millions, but do they really see it? What if we were to recognize that the world’s music rings with a spiritual echo of the harmonies of the Trinity? What if the millions Who attend a NASCAR race this year would come to understand that they are doing more than cheering a favorite driver—-that they are seeking intimate connection With the ultimate Great Person. 

What if we were to realize that every sunset viewed, every sexual intimacy enjoyed, every favorite food savored, every song sung or listened to, every home decorated, and every rich moment enjoyed in this life isn’t ultimately about itself but is an expression and reflection of God’s essential character? Wouldn’t such beautiful and desirable reflections mean that their Source must be even more beautiful–and, ultimately, most desirable?

Dewitt is clearly suggesting that all good things, all beautiful things, all worder and awe-inspiring things, ultimately reflect the good, beautiful, wonderful creator of the universe. To paraphrase Matt Chandler, these things should not terminate on themselves but rather cause us to worship God. This idea is well worth some careful thinking and reflection as it pertains to your own life. Take a moment and consider all the great things in your life and how they reflect your amazing God.

Beauty

Beauty is whatever stuns and surprises and tales our breath away, whether the golden glow of a lingering sunset, the cavernous depths of the Grand Canyon, or the inaugural steps of a first-born child. Beauty is whatever causes our hearts to beat with increasing rapidity and sends chills down our spines our causes goosebumps to rise on our arms. Beauty is whatever stirs up worth in the human spirit and enables us to feel the dignity of self and the hope of tomorrow. (147)

What will turn our hearts from the passing pleasure of sin? What can strengthen our wills to reject the temptations of the flesh? What will energize our souls to turn from worldly delusions? What has the power to transform our desires and reconfigure our longings and stir our emotional chemistry that we might love what God loves and hate what He hates? Only one thing. Jesus, in all His beauty. Jesus, in all that He is for us now and will be tomorrow. (163)

Storms, C. Samuel. Pleasures Evermore: the Life-changing Power of Enjoying God. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2000. Print.