Everyone gets 'good' and 'true', but what about 'beautiful'?

Just a few weeks ago, we found ourselves in Chicago. We strolled through Grant park with its many amazing sculptures, admired the architecture up and down the river—and pretty much bad-mouthed our little town of five million to the south—Atlanta.

To be fair, we love living in Atlanta. But, what happens so often when we travel to places like Chicago, London or Paris is that we play this comparison game. We draw two columns in our minds. The left column contains nothing but superlatives about where we are. The right, judgments about what is lacking. Mostly though, they are lists of what to us, makes a city beautiful, delightful, enchanting—human.

So what does this have to do with anything? Especially with God or with design?

We run a design firm in Atlanta, a firm that holds to the view that design can be an element of what is beautiful in the world—not just the fine art hanging in the Louvre or the way the John Hancock building emerges like a beacon out of the undergrowth of Chicago.

Webster’s Dictionary defines beauty as “the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).”

We believe we are called to use our talents to pursue excellence and beauty—as it relates to design—in all the materials that we create. There are Old Testament passages where God specifies the design and materials for the Priests’ clothing and artifacts. God cares about aesthetics. God created the world to perfection— leaving us in staggering awe that everything we gazed upon would point us to Him. Consider some examples: There isn't just one species of giraffe, there are nine! There are over 80,000 beetles.

Why the color spectrum in animals? Why the fur, patterns, etc?

He has to create. It is part of His nature. It is who He is. And, being made in his image, creating is something He made us to do. And, we should not suck at it—we should seek to glorify our Creator God as best we can, putting every ounce of our creative energy toward that end.

Since we know that God is the author of beauty, and He tells us to dwell on whatever is good, true, and beautiful, why do 'we' settle for anything less in our own creation efforts? Why do 'we' continue to accept functional over exceptional? As French writer and filmmaker Jean Cocteau said, “Christ wants art with all its teeth.”

It’s about time we start living like we believe that.

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