365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 341: Giver of Beauty

Giver of Beauty

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV)

I was talking to my Bible study sisters a few weeks ago about God's lavishness and generosity as our Creator. I commented that God could have decided to set the sun in place to do all its jobs without ever making its rising and setting anything we'd ever take a picture of or ask friends on social media, "Did you see the sunrise this morning? Did you see that gorgeous sunset?" The sun could come up and go down in perfect functionality without making us catch our breath.

One of my ladies added, "Yes, and He could have made the leaves in autumn just turn black and fall off the trees."

I was so struck by the truth of this, which I'd never considered before. Imagine all the deciduous trees, hanging with black leaves instead of the golds and reds and oranges we take fall drives just to see. I know the science behind why the leaves change color, but that, too, is by God's design...by His generous hand. That He chose to make the letting go, the end of one thing, the beginning of another, and the preparation for something still further so beautiful opens a window for us into the heart of the Creator.

In our own letting-goes, our endings, our new beginnings, our preparations for seasons even further down the road, God graciously gives beauty. What might, without this gift, be only black and decaying becomes something we pause to look at. Something we call others to see.

And when, in the pausing and looking and seeing, we yearn for more...for life that is unmarred by death, we do well to recognize that yearning for what it is: the beating of eternity set in our human hearts by the Alpha and the Omega, who makes everything beautiful in its time.