Reflections on Shuffle-Play (an exercise to write a reflection each day on a song from my morning run)
God has made everything beautiful in its time. – Ecclesiastes 3:11
Oftentimes a word or a phrase will get stuck in my head. Especially as I am praying over a certain text or a certain thought or a certain church season, a particular word will keep coming to mind stay nestled there. I’ve learned to pay attention to that. That usually I’m supposed to be learning something – and that usually if I carry it around with me long enough, ponder it as I go about my daily tasks, when I’m in the car or on a walk, that over time God just might give me something to say about it.
So as I’ve thought and prayed in the last days, the word that has been rumbling around my mind is the word, “Beauty.”
Beauty. I catch glimpses of it in the ways my parishioners care for each other, and their families, and our church.
Beauty. We are surrounded by it in the landscape on all sides. I don’t think there are many places as lovely as where we are right now. And the beauty of our church is also a treasure. The stained glass, the history that is soaked into the wood and beams. Now the Advent wreath and a Christmas tree. What could be more beautiful than this?
If I asked you to define “beauty”, what would you say? Would you show me pictures of the sunset at your vacation by the lake? Would you show me pictures of a sleeping baby, a candle burning, or Elizabeth Taylor around the year 1958?
If I asked you to define “beauty”, what would you say? Is it found in the smell of rain? A silent snowfall? The smile of a groom as he sees his bride walking toward him down the aisle? The sight of home after having been away far too long? The sound of Chopin being played by someone who can play it well?
Beauty. If I asked you to define it, what would you say? On the surface we might have similar answers, but I believe that in our hearts, our answers are as unique as we are. Because how can I explain to you how beautiful the sound of my husband’s voice is to my ears? And I could never fully appreciate the beauty that you see when you look at that picture of your old friend, or the lovely memories that the smell of woodsmoke or baking bread or molasses cookies conjures up for you. The lights of a busy city might be attractive to one set of eyes and look simply like a mess to someone else.
My mother-in-law’s idea of beauty – at least of what made for beautiful home decoration was very different from my idea. I’ll never forget the first gift I received from Chad’s mom after we were married. When we had gone to visit his parents in New Mexico, I could tell that his mom took great pride in their house and she talked often about how she enjoyed finding things to decorate the house. Every room had a theme – the living room was all in southwest prints and colors, the kitchen had a farm theme with a concentration on lots of roosters and hens adorning the cookie jars, salt and pepper shakers, placemats and dishes…and the guest bathroom was decorated in “Shabby Chic” as she called it. It was basically lots of pink and white colors, rose patterns and antique-y looking candle-holders. I was impressed with the work that had gone into each room – even if it wasn’t particularly how I would have decorated a house. In fact, at that time having just finished four years of college and four years of seminary and two years of mission work where I just lived out of a backpack, the only “theme” my house could be said to have had back then would have been “early rummage sale.”
Anyway, I must have complimented her decorating in that “shabby chic” bathroom a little too overzealously because a few months later when she came to visit her gift to me was to redo my whole bathroom in “shabby chic.” In my mind I kept thinking, “Why couldn’t she remember that I complimented their hot tub and their expansive wine collection instead?!”
Well even though I was hesitant because it wouldn’t have been my first choice for decorating my bathroom, it really turned out very nice.
And the funny thing about that is that I remember when it all was happening – at the time I didn’t like it because I felt like she was pushing her idea of beauty onto me. But now that years have gone by – years in which I got to know her and be a part of their family – and especially now after she has died, those things she gave me that I once accepted hesitatingly, I can see the beauty in them now because they are filled with story. I can see her reflection when I look at those things – so they are beautiful to me now.
Have you ever noticed that? How as time goes by you are able to notice the beauty in things you weren’t able to see before? It’s like our eyes grow wiser with age, too.
Like I remember how I couldn’t wait to leave my small hometown and the miles and miles of tiresome country roads that surrounded it – but now when I go back there all I notice are the pretty lakes and peaceful fields.
And I think about how I approached motherhood so hesitantly. All I could think about before we had kids was how I had hated babysitting when I was young. I was uninterested in small children and their strange noises and smells. But now that I have my own children, I think they are extraordinarily beautiful – and not just mine – but all of them. I’m in love with every child in our church and every one I see on the street or on television. I want to adopt them all and bring them home – because now my eyes are wise enough to see how God teaches us amazing things through our children.
Beauty. Where do you see beauty? I think beauty has been on my mind this advent because I’ve been pondering not only unique beauty or how our perceptions of beauty change over time, but mostly I’ve been thinking about how even though we like to wrap up this season in shiny paper and twinkling lights, you and I who are gathered here know that it is all about so much more than that. The pretty decorations and festive adornments around every corner may be nice, but we know that they aren’t the point. They don’t even begin to hint at the wonder of this season.
A stark example of this comes in a story I love about one pastor who got fed up with all the decorations and clutter. He felt like all the Christmas decorations had gotten so out of hand that it was obscuring people’s vision of the “reason for the season,” Jesus –- the Jesus that was born in the middle of Herod’s bloody genocide, the Jesus who was born a refugee with no room in the inn, the Jesus who knew suffering from the cradle to the cross. So this pastor went through the sanctuary the night before the big Christmas service and spread out manure all over the floor -– nasty, stinky piles of manure. As folks came in the next day in their best attire, he preached … and did he ever.
He preached about how the original story of Christmas was not about malls and decorations. He preached about a story that was not pretty. He preached about a God who enters the ugliness, the brokenness of this world and redeems all that is ugly and broken. It is a story the congregation will never forget. And though his methods may sound shocking, the truth of the Christmas story was told.
I was reading recently that in Ancient times the Persons of the Trinity were sometimes referred to not as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – but as Goodness, Beauty, and Truth. They were called the perfections of God. Not that Goodness, Beauty and Truth were God – but that those attributes pointed to God. That when you saw those things, you were in the presence of holiness. This is why we should love those things that are good and beautiful and true – because they are reminders of God.
So then – if we are looking for our best definition of Beauty – we find it in Christ. If we want beauty, True Beauty, we won’t find it then in most of what the world sells us as beautiful. Rather true Beauty is as a pastor friend of mine writes: beauty, like Christ, is found under the sign of its opposite: life from death, speech from silence, light from darkness. A crown from a cross, resurrection from the grave, God is closest in suffering and grief. Anything else is pretending, and “putting roses on the cross.” True Beauty is love incarnate, living in solidarity with the poor, sick, oppressed and outcast, taking action against earthly injustice.
So then – how can we make this lovely season of advent even more beautiful? We can do it by seeking the kind of beauty Christ represents – which was never about things that were pleasing to the ear and eye – rather it was about love in action. It was compassion and kindness and generosity even when it wasn’t comfortable or convenient at all.
We can make this Advent different and truly a time of preparing for Christ’s coming by doing things that celebrate who he is to us. This doesn’t include being a part of the frantic race to buy more things to fill our homes or to give to others who already have everything they need. This does include things like making conscious decisions to make advent a time of worship, spending less, giving more, and loving all.
Imagine if we all bought one less present and decided to help others one extra time during this Advent season?
What does the world need more – one more ugly sweater or useless gadget for someone who already has more than enough, or one additional moment of sharing with people in need out of what God has given us this year? What kind of blessing could we be? What kind of good work could we do in Jesus’ name?
All I know is that something like that would look a little more like a time that is preparing our hearts for Christ’s coming. It could make this Advent season ring with Christ’s presence. It could be beautiful.
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
by Prince
Could U be the most beautiful girl in the world?
It’s plain 2 see U’re the reason that God made a girl
When the day turns into the last day of all time
I can say I hope U are in these arms of mine
And when the night falls before that day I will cry
I will cry tears of joy cuz after U all one can do is die, oh
Could U be the most beautiful girl in the world?
Could U be?
It’s plain 2 see U’re the reason that God made a girl
Oh, yes U are
How can I get through days when I can’t get through hours?
I can try but when I do I see U and I’m devoured, oh yes
Who’d allow, who’d allow a face 2 be soft as a flower? Oh
I could bow (bow down) and feel proud in the light of this power
Oh yes, oh
Could U be (could U be) the most beautiful girl in the world?
Could U be?
It’s plain 2 see U’re the reason that God made a girl
Oh, yes U are
And if the stars ever fell one by one from the sky
I know Mars could not be, uh, 2 far behind
Cuz baby, this kind of beauty has got no reason 2 ever be shy
Cuz honey, this kind of beauty is the kind that comes from inside
Could U be (could U be) the most beautiful girl in the world?
So beautiful, beautiful
It’s plain 2 see (plain 2 see) U’re the reason that God made a girl
Oh yeah! (Oh, yes U are)
Girl (Could U be?)
U must be … oh yeah!
(Could U be?)
U’re the reason … oh yeah
(Could) [x3]
