Beauty is such a subjective emotion. What might be beautiful to one may not be beautiful to another. Yet, there is no doubt that everyone finds sunrises and sunsets beautiful beyond anything we can imagine or create on our own. I think of them as God’s fingerprints, his own DNA artwork on a mega canvas. I also think about the fun He must be having when He is in His creative mode forming and re-forming shapes and colors in order to give His earthly children such visual joy.

The above sunset photo taken by my niece Chelsey has extraordinary meaning to our family. You see, our mother loved sunsets and she also loved daisies…both of which were spoken about during her eulogy. Captured one week after our 90 year-old Mother’s death, we saw it as a message from God telling us that He had welcomed her into his heavenly realm because of her belief in Jesus as her Savior. This special sunset shaped like a daisy was her “new address card” posted by God himself.

But while there is much natural beauty found in God’s creation, there is also characteristic beauty found in human nature. Some people have it and others do not. Our mother had a beautiful character and she was always attempting to teach her special characteristics to her ten children in subtle ways.

“When we were fussing and fuming about our ill-fitting, unfashionable hand-me-downs, Mother would often say, with a raised eyebrow, “beauty is as beauty does” and leave us alone to contemplate what she meant. This had a way of pricking the conscience, that “thing” God had placed inside of each person to help distinguish between right and wrong.” Excerpt from Island Girl: A Triumph Of The Spirit

In a world that is filled with strife, selfishness, social and cultural changes, it is not always easy to follow our mother’s motto and to act accordingly. “Beauty is as beauty does” is an internal voice that comes from and through God telling us to love one another as He loves us, to be kind to one another and to treat one another as better than ourselves. It stands as an extremely powerful force. Try it sometime when you are facing difficult situations.

“Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us”
Psalm 90:17 (NIV)

Photo by Chelsey Pollon, Kensington, PEI, Canada