The Image of God

Beauty, Core Value, God 0

For this reason, I disagree with those who say we bear the image of God only, or even primarily, by living out our faith in our labor. The thought is reductive, and it evidences that we are content to exclude those who will never work, who may never speak, who no longer make or do. Their image-bearing is not dispensable; it is essential.

Our dignity may involve our doing, but it is foremost in our very being – our tears and emotions, our bodies lying in the grass, our scabs healing. I try to remember that Eve and Adam bore the image of God before they did anything at all. This is very mysterious to me, and it must be protected.

— Cole Arthur Riley, This Here Flesh, p. 12

Photo: Purple Iris, South Riding, Virginia, May 17, 2025

Bright Moments

Beauty, God, Joy 0

It’s tempting to dismiss these bright moments as merely flashes of serendipity, of coincidence. I contend that they are limited only by our response to them. We’ve already considered that hallowed moments are often found in small things and small places and that God does not have a habit of appearing to us in spectacular ways. Rather, we note God’s presence when we take time to observe the humble, everyday miracles and, now and then, the bright moments. These will not make the newspapers, but they should surely hold space in our private journals.

–Tracy Balzer, A Journey of Sea and Stone, p. 81

Photo: Sunrise, South Riding, Virginia, March 7, 2025

A Shelter from the Storm

Beauty, Community, Inspiration, Jesus 0

A shelter from the storm is a beautiful metaphor of the church. It’s not an angry church on a crusade for political causes or a detached church disseminating dogma to a disinterested culture. Instead, try imagining a place where it’s always safe and warm – this is the church as a shelter from the storm. It’s immensely appealing. And it’s the very metaphor Jesus leaves lingering in our imagination as he concludes his Sermon on the Mount. In his summation Jesus tells us that if we will live his teaching, we will build a house on the rock-solid foundation that will stand when the rains fall, the winds blow, and the floods rise. To say it plainly, a church that lives the Sermon on the Mount will be a shelter from the storm.

–Brian Zahnd, Beauty Will Save the World, p. 182-183

Photo: Cloudy sky over lake, South Riding, Virginia, December 30, 2023

Start with Joy

Beauty, God, Joy 0

As Paul says, “He has not left himself without witness.” God’s voice is heard in the rain and in the harvest. God is close where there is good food and the laughter of friends. God has been with you this entire time, declares Paul, “filling your hearts with joy.” Start with joy if you’re looking for enchantment. Let gladness be your guide to the gateway of heaven.

— Richard Beck, Hunting Magic Eels, p. 90

Photo: South Riding, Virginia, January 11, 2025

Is It Beautiful?

Beauty, Jesus, Truth 0

We need to constantly ask ourselves, “Is this beautiful? Is this thought beautiful? Is the attitude beautiful? Is this action beautiful? Does it reflect the beauty of Christ and the cruciform? If finger-pointing isn’t beautiful, then we should abandon it. If politically based protest isn’t beautiful, then maybe we can do without it. If the common man doesn’t recognize what we do in the name of Christ as beautiful, we should at least reexamine it. If a particular doctrine doesn’t come across as truly beautiful, then we should hold it suspect. Someone may raise the question, “Can beauty be trusted?” I believe it can, as long as we make the critical distinction between the shallow and faddish thing that our modern culture calls “image” and the absolute value that our ancestors have always understood as beauty. We can rightly evaluate our faith and practice in terms of beauty for this very reason: The Lord and his ways are beautiful. “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

— Brian Zahnd, Beauty Will Save the World, p. 31

Photo: South Riding, Virginia, January 20, 2024

Blessing for Feeling

Acceptance, Beauty 0

Your emotions are not wrong or bad
or lying to you or telling the full truth.
They are giving you a bit of data
that you shouldn’t ignore.
We love, and lose, and fall, and get back up,
and fail, and try again.

Your humanity is not an affront.
We are reminding ourselves that
this is who we are, how we’re made:
to feel the pain, the grief, the stress,
the risk, the fear, the heartbreak.

So, you beautiful creature,
here is your permission slip to feel it all.
To feel the joy and delight and excitement.
And the sorrow and fear and despair.

All the yellows and pinks, and violets and grays.

Because you are the whole damn sky.

— Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have, p. 4-5

Photo: South Riding, Virginia, January 18, 2024

Gifts of Each Season

Beauty, Healing, Life 0

Each season has its gifts. What did my life’s hardest season give to me? Most of all, belief in my own ability not only to come back after a long winter but to grow stronger, more alive. Belief that change makes everything possible. Belief in my own spring. In the meantime, thanks to the bare trees, I can see more sky. It’s a beauty emergency — all that blue through the branches.

— Maggie Smith, Keep Moving, p. 55

Photo: South Riding, Virginia, March 27, 2021