Seeking beauty in hard times

A friend, Ray Woo, took this photo from his apartment in the
Honolulu building in which we both live. The view is of the Pacific at sunset the
night before hurricane Douglas was forecast to strike Oahu. Thankfully, Douglas
turned north and veered into open ocean. The beauty of the sunset, however, is
striking.
Had Douglas struck Oahu, the sunset’s beauty would in no way
diminish or justify the harm the winds and rain would have caused. The Bible encourages
people to seek the good that may come out of bad things. Yet the Bible never
suggests or implies that the good in any way justifies the bad from which the
good emerged.
Similarly, suggesting that Covid-19 represents God's judgement
on certain people, beliefs, or practices shows incredible hubris and terribly
distorts who God is. God, in all of the world’s major religious traditions, is
good and loving. God never wills bad things for creation nor increases the bad
that exists. Metaphysical answers to the perennial question of “Why?” are as
unknowable for twenty-first century people as those answers were unanswerable
to the authors of the Old Testament book of Job. God consistently desires that people
experience God's love, liberation, and live abundantly.
After four plus months of a global pandemic with millions of
cases of the Covid-19 virus, tens of thousands of deaths, lockdowns that
created widespread economic hardship, physical
distancing and wearing facemasks
that endanger community while preserving life, and other hardships, people increasingly
want to return to normal, whatever a new normal may be. In the meantime, I find
solace in moments of beauty.
The human aesthetic sense is one of the vital expressions of the human spirit. Finding and cherishing moments of beauty in nature and in others offers a respite from bad news, offer a momentary oasis of peace, and a sign that God has not abandoned the world.
Comments