Can Beauty Save the World?
“Beauty will save the world.”
Do you remember that part in the story, The Grinch Stole Christmas? It’s my favorite part - when the Grinch’s heart “grew three sizes that day.” He stood there with his Grinch feet stuck in the snow and then waited. For what? To see what would happen when the Who Village realized that their packages, boxes, and bags had been taken away.
But instead of the anticipated “boo hoo'' ascending the mountain, a song did. The Who’s song reached him…with unexpected beauty. The song wasn’t beautiful because of the sound or even the words necessarily. I mean, who really knows what “Dahoo Dores” even means? No - their songs were beautiful because they emerged from something that couldn’t be packaged in a box. Something eternal.
It was then that the Grinch had his epiphany, “Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store...Maybe Christmas is a little bit more.” The Grinch had an encounter with beauty and his heart expanded three sizes to take it in…because that’s what beauty does.
Like Dostoevsky, and Brian Zahnd, who wrote the book, Beauty Will Save the World, I’ve been really pondering this question. What if beauty, true beauty, really could save the world?
The Soul-Shrinking Crisis
I think for many of us, this past season has left us feeling a little like the Grinch - a little cynical. A little bitter. And maybe our hearts have shrunk two sizes smaller than they ought to be.
Let’s face it - we are in a soul shrinking crisis. An epidemic of lives bombarded by hate, disappointment, and injustice that continues to make our hearts constrict.
Do you feel it in your own chest? I know I do.
We are surrounded by anxious systems overwrought with trauma. Many of us are deconstructing and coming out of a time of great loss. The political season, the pandemic, and the exposure of injustice and abuse rampant within the church have left us heart sick.
Many of us are questioning what we believe. Can anything be good? Can anything be beautiful?
According to Dr. Curt Thompson, MD, we tend to want to respond to trauma with left-brain ways of dealing with it. Logic, reasoning, and control.
That’s what the Grinch did - he tried fixing the problem of his pain and loneliness by taking, grasping, and controlling. And if I am honest, my first response to trauma is pretty Grinchy too. When anxiety presents itself in soul-crushing needs, pain, and injustice, I try to fix, manage, and problem solve. I try to defeat despair, evil, and injustice with my own control. And so far that hasn’t been working out so great for me.
Usually, the harder I try to grasp for control, the more these issues control me.
But what if the soul-shrinking crisis in our world wasn’t a left-brained problem that required left-brained solutions like control, certainty, or even a robust theology?
What if the way to transform an anxious system that causes trauma isn’t by working with the anxiety on its own terms, but subverting it with unexpected beauty?
What if the greatest thing we can offer an anxious system is the beauty we create within it, and even in spite of it?
Isn’t that what happened for the Grinch? When he came to the end of himself and stood there alone and in despair - beauty came to find him. And it surprised him.
As John O’Donohue puts it, “the wonder of the Beautiful is its ability to surprise us with swift, sheer grace. Iit is like a divine breath that blows the heart open.
The Grinch had his heart blown wide open by beauty. Perhaps we all need moments like this. Moments that blow our heart wide open to accommodate the vastness of divine love.
Because beauty is love made visible.
I can’t think of anything that more clearly displays this than the incarnation and the Crucifixion, the two events we celebrate and study the most in the Christian story. You want to know if beauty can save the world? Let’s just take a look at how God chose to save it himself.
The Incarnation
Scholars have unpacked the incarnation with many words, but the incarnation is a concept beyond our ability to grasp with rational knowledge. God didn’t just speak about his love for us (a left brain function) - divine love became visible in the body of Jesus (a relational, right brain solution to the problem of evil). Divine love became manifest and dwelled among us.
“Though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.”
The word “recognize” here in John 1:10 can also be translated, “perceive.” It is also the word used for knowing or feeling. It is a highly relational word. A highly right brained word. The kind of knowing beyond words or logic or rational thought.
We have all heard it said: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Perhaps there is some truth to this because we can only behold beauty if we are willing to see it. And not just to see it, but to behold it and let it have its work on us.
From Making Room in Advent: 25 Devotions for a Season of Wonder by Bette Dickinson
Do you know who models this kind of sight in the Christmas story? The shepherds.
The shepherds were on the margins - left out of all the places God was presumed to be. Their work prevented them from worshiping at the temple because they were considered unclean. They were the outcasts of society.
But here, love chased them down in the darkness, ventured out to the outskirts of society with a heavenly invitation to behold him. Love was born to them. And they had to see it for themselves.
And you know what? When they beheld infant Jesus, incarnate love and the manifestation of beauty himself, I’ll bet the hearts of the shepherds grew three sizes that day. They were seen, known, and loved by God in that moment. And it transformed them.
And so, the shepherds did what we all do when we encounter beauty and let it fill us with wonder, worship, awe, and astonishment - they shared it with others.
Beauty was changing the world.
Then, we have the other most critical form of beauty the world has ever seen:
The Crucifixion
On the Cross, in this subversive act of defiance against shame and evil, God offered us the greatest act of beauty we have ever known. He submitted himself underneath all of our shame, trauma, and anxiety and subverted it with love.
I love what Brian Zahnd has to say about this,
“In going to the cross, Jesus was not being practical; he was being faithful. Jesus didn’t take a pragmatic approach to the problem of evil; Jesus took an aesthetic approach to the problem of evil. Jesus chose to absorb the ugliness of evil and turn it into something beautiful - the beauty of forgiveness.”
This is just what love does. It takes evil, hate, shame, and injustice and transforms it (and us) into something beautiful.
So, do I believe beauty can save the world? Yes. Because apparently God did.
God’s approach to solving the evil and problems in the world were not logical, analytical, or even pragmatic. He chose an approach that was relational, creative, and expressive.
A love beyond words.
And I believe if we, like the shepherds, can behold beauty and let it transform us, then we can’t help but spread.
Because beauty begets beauty.
When we experience the beauty of divine love in our lives, it germinates within us and multiplies into the world. When God’s love dwells with us (the incarnation), it’s like a seed that is planted within us that grows, taking on our flesh and expressing itself through our talents, gifts, and relationships.
When we have experienced the self-giving, sacrificial love and forgiveness of the cross, it’s catchy. We may just find ourselves laying ourselves down in others-centered, self-giving, sacrificial love, and forgiveness too.
And when this happens, it can change the world.
If you’re looking to behold beauty this Advent, I invite you to order my new book, Making Room in Advent: 25 Devotions for a Season of Wonder. It includes original paintings, breath prayers, and reflections on Luke 1-2 to help you slow down during Advent and perceive, with awe, the beauty of the incarnation. If you pre-order before Sept. 13, 2022, submit this form to receive several bonuses including an audio guided visio divina practice with 4 of the paintings from the book to help you slow down, breathe, and perceive beauty in your midst.
