By the Way: We long for beauty

By Medicine Hat News on May 5, 2018.

There is always a time in between when the snow melts and the glorious soft greens of spring appear. There is an in- between time when we are so relieved to be free of the snow and the cold but things are not yet right. The brown hills, the dusty roads and the bare dirt of our gardens do not satisfy us. We find the grit of this in-between time irritating like a rock in our shoe.

But we are stoic. We don’t dare complain too much about the dust because we have just finished complaining about the long cold winter. It is a great relief to be free from our heavy coats and boots. Yet we are not content because the beauty of spring has not fully showed herself.

During the in between time we long for beauty. That is a longing that we all share and feel keenly at this time of year. I believe that this is a longing that God has put in our hearts. It is not enough for us to understand what is happening scientifically when the grass turns from brown to green and the sap begins to move inside the tree. Our hearts are not satisfied with a cognitive understanding of the natural world, no matter how much we are fascinated by the science of it. The appreciation of beauty that is in every human heart rises above raw knowledge.

After we have had the dusty discontented days of in between, we are delighted when the grass greens and the canopy of trees shed its greys for the freshness of spring. We feel a new freedom to be outside and feel the soft air that has lost its bite. I believe that God made us that way, creatures who delight in beauty. God who set the seasons in motion delights to see our enjoyment.

In the Bible, it says this about God, “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

At this time of year, when I feel the longing for the beauty of spring, I am reminded that it is God who has put this longing in my heart and it is God who gives and shares the delight I feel with each change in the world around me.

Lila de Waal is diaconal minister at Victory Lutheran Church.

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