Articles: Encounters with Beauty in the World

Beauty can save the world,
one soul at a time.

Perspective

Under the Tutelage of Simple Beauties

I had been living in Humenné, Slovakia for a year, and now it was time to say goodbye. I had long been thinking about the best way to conclude. A few weeks before my departure, I asked my friend and colleague if he would host a final gathering at his wife’s cottage in

Watching Leaves

We had been watching the leaves turn for the last few weeks and the day arrived when the blanket of burnt orange and muted red covered our front yard. My sons are still young and I did not know how they would respond to the task ahead. We began raking together, and to

Revelation in Brokenness

Oftentimes, when I think about beauty, and happy things, sunsets and stars come to mind. Those moments make me say, “Wow. Look at the wonder of God’s creation.” As I’ve gotten older, my understanding of beauty has broadened. Now, the moments that feel the

Weights Lifted

Sacred scripture is full of examples of forgiveness, reconciliation, and the exhortation to confess our sins to one another. Yet as a young evangelical Protestant, I had no framework for how this should be done. In 1 John 1:9 we read, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” This seemed straightforward, but it wasn’t.

The Lady Slipper

I’ve hiked this path so many times I could probably manage doing so with my eyes closed. Sturdy bridge, stone stairs, water rushing down below, wind rustling through leaves colored according to season. The state park has a charm that seems to amplify with age, the kind that settles and sculpts a landscape through years of weather and wear. Its beauty increases over time like the smile wrinkles

Quiet Push

Recently, I’ve been noticing a whole new selection of beautiful things. Since moving, my beauty-seeing eyes have been forced into a bit of a reset. I used to live at home, surrounded by people and places that I love. Now, I live in a brand-new city where I can count the people I know on one hand. On any given day before I moved across the country, I’d be very likely to say that I saw beauty on my nature walk, or

Influential Encounters

Beauty does not always come to us whence we expect. Certainly I’ve experienced the beauty of mountains, starry nights, Michaelangelo’s David, or Mahler’s “Symphony #2: Resurrection”. These are typical places people seek beauty. But, we often forget (save for the unique pull of the sexual difference) to seek beauty in the pinnacle of God’s creatures: man. It was from a man that I experienced the most influential encounter with beauty in my life.

Ordinary Days

When asked to write about a beautiful moment for this project, I thought I had to find something extraordinary…something rare, unforgettable, worthy of being written down and shared. I have spent weeks searching my memory for the perfect moment. The longer I thought about it, the more I realized that the point isn’t to find beauty in the extraordinary moments, but to notice the beauty that exists in every ordinary day.

Emotion Without Words

A beautiful moment in my life was when I went to see Swan lake back in October. I went with a bunch of friends and it was my first time going to see a ballet. I loved watching the ballet dancers and listening to the orchestra. It was fun getting to experience it with my friends. The performance was so beautiful that it brought me to tears. It’s a memory I’ll always appreciate. What really struck me was how so much emotion could be conveyed without any words.