Beauty Beyond Necessity

There are places in creation where the generosity of God becomes almost difficult to comprehend. A mountainside covered in wildflowers may never be seen by the people whose lives unfold in the valleys below it, yet those flowers open beneath the same heavens that declare His glory. Snow settles upon branches in patterns of astonishing delicacy, although much of that beauty will disappear before anyone arrives to witness it. Rivers move patiently through stone, carrying the evidence of centuries within landscapes that existed long before the first human eye rested upon them. Everywhere we turn, creation displays a richness that exceeds the requirements of mere survival.

I have returned often to the opening chapters of Genesis while considering these things. God did not form a world concerned only with sustaining biological life. He filled it with fragrance, color, texture, rhythm, and abundance, then placed humanity within a garden already flourishing beneath His care. The gold and precious stones mentioned in connection with Eden appear before the development of the civilizations that would eventually assign them economic value. Beauty belonged to creation before human beings developed the categories through which they would measure its usefulness.

There is a kind of poverty in learning to regard everything primarily according to what it can produce. We begin to approach the world as a collection of resources, our days as a succession of tasks, and even our spiritual lives as undertakings whose worth must be established by visible results. Yet creation continues bearing witness to a God whose wisdom and delight cannot be confined to the narrow boundaries of human utility. A person may spend an entire life becoming more efficient and still overlook much of the glory with which the Lord has filled the world.