Beauty-Part I

A year and a half ago Ang and I bought our first house.  It has become a very beautiful place, and we are blessed to live here. 

I did the landscaping.  It has been a major project.

The yard is long and split-leveled.  The main grass area is hemmed in by a rock wall, flower beds and trees.  The lower yard is surrounded in by a second rock wall and a small garden.  We built a paver-stone patio between the two.

The main yard ends with a steep hill.  I tore out all of the wild grass and put in trees and plants.  We covered the empty space with bark mulch.  

On the upper half of the hill there is a natural plateau with a view of an orchard.  We leveled the plateau and built another rock wall.  

I wheelbarrowed over a ton of paver stones up the 25 yard incline and built another sitting area.  We fenced the yard.  We built the stairs. 

And beauty emerged from the chaos.

I think that the creation of beauty is one of the most important works in each of our lives.  Here’s why:

-Beauty affirms the goodness of creation.  

-It makes the world more like it was meant to be.  

-Beauty helps us to become more truly human.  

-She points to the world as it will one day be (More glorious.  More beautiful). 

Maybe I’ll unpack my thoughts about these things for you someday.  They are tied to the Christian themes of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Resurrection.

But for today, I simply want to encourage you to create beauty.  Share it with the people you love.  It can be hard work, but it makes the world more awesome.  

Maybe we’ll have you over for a barbecue someday.