Beautiful Things

beau·ty 

   noun

the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arisingfrom sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), ameaningful design or pattern, or something else (as apersonality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).

It's that time of year again. Finals! Lately, I have realized the people that I live around and interact with are either consumed by Christmas stuff, or finals, seeing as this coming week is the final week of the semester. To step away from all of that I go to song.

Over the past week or so of finals and life, I have come across a Gungor song that is called "Beautiful Things." I have fallen in love with this song. I even bought and downloaded it off of amazon I loved it so much. This is a regular song talking about God, but over the course of listening to it over 20 times it really speaks to me. 

Part of the chorus of the song goes like this: 

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust

When listening to it the first 15 times, I thought they just repeated this phrase. It's a great phrase. God has made beautiful things out of dust. Think back to the last time you cleaned off the dust of a table or vent area. It was gross. Just looking at it on the swifer wand duster it looked bad. You couldn't believe how much dust had accumulated. 

Switch your thoughts to your friends and family. The most beautiful people in your life that God had created. Go back to remembering that dust that you swept up. That's was what man and Your images of beautiful people were made out of. Dust. 

In Genesis 2:7

"Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."

And Genesis 3:9

"By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Sometimes it's hard to think that out of something we reject and disgust as something beautiful. Sometimes it's hard to think that even though we are made from dust we are beautiful to God. 

I had said that I thought they repeated this phrase, but come to find out they don't. the whole chorus is:

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

This final part says he makes beautiful things out of us. Out of us. Not just that we were made beautifully, but that he takes us, sins and all and makes beautiful things out of us. This line just captures me. He not only made us beautiful, but he's using us to create beautiful things too. 

This point is very important to me. As an artist I create things. I try my best to create beautiful things. I want God to use me and the talents he blessed me with to create beautiful things to bless others with. I'm hoping that through my discovery of these talents God makes me more beautiful in His image. 

"So God created mankind in his own image, 
   in the image of God he created them; 
   male and female he created them." -Genesis 1:27