When I stand up watching the sunrise and the golden rays sneak up on the mist of the blue sky, witnessing the fresh start to a new day and breathing in the cool morning air, I always overwhelmed by this sight.
The first words Edwin Aldrin spoke when he stepped onto the surface of the moon were "magnificent desolation." The moon is a lifeless, dusty heap continuously struck by meteorites. Why "magnificent"?
Say the word "beauty" and men usually think of women. It has been suggested that human beauty is an evolutionary trick to lure males and females to mate, thus ensuring the survival of the species.
We don't all find beauty in the same places. But it's generally true that as we view the natural world we have a tendency to idealize and soften the harsh realities. We humans have a way of finding beauty in surprising places and forms.
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. ~Confucius
It isn't a failure of the English language when we use the word "beautiful" to describe a horse galloping across a flowering meadow, a bubbling stream filled with fish, a fiery sunset, or a mother nursing a baby. The word describes an emotional reaction to experiences and images that are both common and rare—sexiness is just one tiny cul-de-sac down which beauty takes us.
For instance, architectural beauty draws thousands of gaping tourists to Paris and Rome. Musical beauty has drawn new admirers to Mozart and Beethoven for hundreds of years. The appreciation of beauty attracts viewers to such diverse television shows as Trading Spaces (interior decorating), Biker Build-off (custom motorcycle design) and American Idol (young people singing).
To a heart surgeon, the muscular contractions of the human heart are beautiful. To a car mechanic the engine sound after fixing is beautiful.
Which means that beauty is not perfection, but a value judgment. A beautiful thing can be flawed, and in such a world as ours it always is. When we call something beautiful, it is as much an act of grace as appreciation. We are not saying it is perfect, only it is perfect in our eyes.
Beauty often lifts our eyes higher, stirs up thoughts of God. It creates a sense of wonder, of awe. It brings the word "wow" to our mouths. Perhaps wonder is so rare in our everyday lives that when we spot it, we have to pause and gape.
From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.
Is there something like an acknowledgment of God at these times? A prayer of appreciation to the Master Craftsman?.
Just as the potter leaves the subtle impressions of his fingers on the clay pot, God has left his own mark on the universe, and on us. When we respond to beauty, whether in the natural world, or in human relationships, or in the creative labors of our own hands and minds, perhaps we are acknowledging the tooling marks of our Creator.
In Romans 1:20, Paul says that God has left his mark on creation.
In Holy Quraan Allah told us...."He created the heavens and earth with Truth, formed you and made your forms beautiful and to Him is the homecoming" (64:3)
Prophet Mohammed (alaihi al-salatu wa al-salam) said.... "God is beautiful and loves beauty"
