The Transcendent Beauty Of God

Beauty is the possession and characteristic of God and is one of the qualities which are distinctive of Him. It emphasizes the form in which He reveals Himself in the external manifestation of His presence and the quality of His greatness, authority, dignity, preeminence, power, perfection, and majesty.

"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in Heaven and Earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name." (1 Chron 29:11-13 NIV)

The word "glory" is used throughout the Bible to describe God's beauty. It comes from the Hebrew word "kabhod" and the Greek word "doxa," which are often translated throughout the Bible to convey God's wealth, perfection of character, splendor, majesty, abundance, and honor well as to convey the ecstasy found in Heaven. The word's root meaning denotes weight, or heaviness, size, rarity, beauty, brilliance, brightness, desire, and adornment. This divine quality is beyond man's understanding because "The LORD is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the LORD our God, the one who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?" (Ps 113:4-6 NIV).

The Foundation of Beauty

Beauty is the universal foundation of all things. It is transcendent by nature. The beauty and glory of God are far more incredible and surpass any earthly beauty you could ever know. Everything about Him is beautiful. His power is beautiful. His love is beautiful. Beauty is rooted in Him. He is the foundation of all beauty in the universe. His beauty is what makes Him worthy of our worship. Beauty begins and ends in God. He is the revelation of all that is good, loving, and kind. He signs His name using a rainbow and uses beauty as His messenger, declaring across the universe that He is "altogether lovely" (Gen 9:13; Song 5:16).

Deeply rooted in every human heart is an unquenchable longing for beauty, a God-given sense that beauty must have a more significant and permanent meaning than ourselves. It can arouse pleasure, delight, and even bring rest. We long to observe and be a part of beauty. We seek a rare glimpse of greatness. We yearn for a vision of glory. We are moved by music, the words of a poet, the work of an artist, a newborn child, the uniqueness of all living creatures, the multicolored hues of a sunset, the brilliance of a sunrise, the majesty of mountain peaks, the melodic sound of a waterfall, the wind rustling through the leaves, the simplicity of a flower, the lightness of a snowflake. These things cultivate our sensory awareness and expand our consciousness as we learn and appreciate something of the Creator. Yet, they are all but token twinkles and shimmering shadows of the beauty of God that has been intricately woven through the fabric of all creation.

The Heavens Declare the Beauty of God

"God, the LORD, created the heavens and stretched them out. He created the Earth and everything in it. (Isa 42:5 NLT)

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." (Ps 19:1 NIV)

"The whole earth is filled with his glory!" (Ps 72:19 NIV)

I remember as a young teenager gazing into the heavens one night while sitting around a campfire at a YMCA camp on Catalina Island, just off the California coast, and declaring to myself, "There is no way that this could have just happened on its own. It is just too magnificent to have happened by some random chance." That experience caused the beginning of an aching hunger in me to pursue knowing the God of all creation. And that hunger has never ceased to this day. I continually yearn to "gaze upon the beauty of the LORD" (Ps 27:4).

Beauty in creation draws us to the beautiful God, creating in us a deep hunger to know true beauty Himself. Yet, we often settle for an imitation, the created counterfeit, not the Creator Himself. We are drawn instead to beautiful things and people. Each year, tens of millions of dollars are spent on cosmetic surgery, clothes, jewelry, and cosmetics to make us look more attractive. Yet Adam and Eve didn't need clothes or make-up or jewelry as they walked naked in the Garden because they were clothed in the beauty of God. His beauty, the beauty of His presence, covered them. This longing for beauty exists because God is the ultimate Beautiful One. He is the absolute original pattern of all other beauty. He made you to long for Himself. Anything less than God will leave you unsatisfied.