Beautiful is the Beholder

Every summer, the Southwest Open displays the artwork of several local artists. The pieces in the gallery are wide and varied. I often marvel at the creative prowess of the artists. I have also, on occasion, looked at a piece with great bewilderment. Masterful strokes of a brush on canvas, the patience, the angle, the light of a photograph, the delicate scratches on a clapboard, the wood, the clay sculpted, all created for the joy of the art for artist and beholder. The gallery is gone now, the art no longer on display, no longer beheld by passersby.

Psalm 104 is a gallery of sorts. The psalmist describes God’s creation in a very playful and descriptive way. There is marvel at God’s power to create and sustain. There is a kind of bewilderment and awe at the vastness of it. The beauty of this piece of art is that it is never taken down and put away. God is the beholder of this glorious place where we dwell. God’s paintbrush is ever in hand, constantly transforming and recreating.

God is the beautiful beholder of all of creation. We are created in the image of the beautiful beholder and God looks upon us and says “It is good.”

Mighty God, cause us to delight in all that you have made, that we would add your beauty to it. Amen. — LH