A Beauty To Save the World

“I’ve been told that you value delicacy and yearn for beauty,” the old man went on. “So seek beauty, Miss Prim. Seek it in silence, in tranquillity; seek it in the middle of the night and at dawn. Pause to close doors while you seek it, and don’t be surprised if it doesn’t reside in museums or in palaces. Don’t be surprised if, in the end; you find beauty to be not Something but Someone.”

-The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

Every January I’m reminded of my love of goals and lists, of planning and dreaming. I’m also reminded of how much I sometimes hate goals and lists, of how I come to despise planning and dreaming. My husband would laugh to hear me say that, because he knows I have a list for any and everything and that planning is my “love language,” but in January it’s just not possible to keep my goals and lists and plans and dreams in their proper places. So when February comes I finally can breathe in deep and remember that I don’t actually HAVE to do all the things RIGHT NOW; I don’t have to strive continuously for better and best.

If you’re one of those people who successfully set goals every year and checks everything off your to do list each day, then you probably can’t relate to the last paragraph, but if you’re like me, loving the ideas of goals, yet loving dreaming more than to do lists, I want to share a little secret I’ve been mulling over in my own life: what if our January drive for productivity and perfection is less about checklists and vision boards, and what if it’s really our souls crying out for creativity and beauty? Dostoevsky is credited with the quote that inspired this article’s title, a line we’ve probably all heard: “What beauty shall save the world?” And ultimately it IS beauty that has saved, and is continuing to save, the world.

Isn’t it fascinating that Jesus, the very same one who died on the cross for our sins, is also the Creator of all we see outside our windows each day? John 1:1-4 tells us “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” It’s not a coincidence that our Savior is also our Creator, and it’s also not a coincidence that we have the same drive to create within us. We act as image-bearers of our Creator each time we magnify beauty around us. This is why the small, daily acts matter so much– when we clean and tidy our homes, we show that beauty matters; when we plant a garden, or create a meal, we reflect Adam’s mandate from the garden to “work it and watch over it” (Genesis 2:15); when we hone and practice the skills of painting or writing or knitting or whatever other hobby we love, we are recognizing that on our own there would be no such skill, and suddenly our creativity becomes an act of worship.

But how does this matter in light of January and big goals and small (or maybe not so small) checklists? Sometimes I wonder if we miss the point when we start our goals or new year's resolutions. What if what we are actually craving in the aftermath of all the sparkle and shine of the Christmas season is our own creation of beauty? What if instead of pouring ourselves into big, lofty goals and strict diets and five-year plans, we just created? We could set up a canvas outside and paint the sunrise. Or pull out a cookbook and try a new recipe. Maybe plan a garden for when the weather warms up. Write a story or a poem. Dig your fingers into playdough with your kids or set up a giant puzzle for everyone to work on over the next week. Learn a new hobby or revive an old one. What you pick doesn’t matter so much as your focus during it: are our eyes open enough to see the beauty we are working towards, the beauty that is present even in the messy process?

The beauty we create isn’t the beauty that will save us. Our salvation only lies in Christ; His death and resurrection is the beauty that saved the world, yet we get to join in telling His story as our lives reflect the beauty that can only come from a Heavenly Creator. So if you’re feeling stuck in a post-January haze of shoulds and betters and bests, may I suggest setting aside the need for goals and productivity for a bit and try making something instead? You might be surprised at how fulfilling the act of creating is, and it might just satisfy your soul in a way you never expected.