Hymn #341 in Celebrating Grace Hymnal — “For the Beauty of the Earth”
[pullquote_center width=”73%”]For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth over and around us lies,
Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.[/pullquote_center]
No real reason for it. Serves no tangible purpose. Can’t be quantified, traded, saved, spent, stored. Wasteful, some have called it. Needless. Sinful, even. Beauty. That’s right, beauty. There have been periods in Christian history during which any sort of artistic expression was frowned upon, sometimes banned outright.
Yet there it is. Open your eyes. Turn any corner. In a world created by God, beauty abundant is literally everywhere; warm light and velvet darkness, green forest and sere desert, pudgy baby knees and deep wisdom of old folk eyes. Beauty in cosmos and cell, in the physical world and the spiritual, natural beauty and human handiwork.
Praise the Lord for beauty, true good gift of God.