There are some experiences which God gives you that change you forever, if you let them. Many years ago, I had the most wonderful dream of my life. It was unlike any dream I have ever had in that it did not feel like a dream. In fact, quite the opposite. When I awoke from the dream it had been so real, I had been so present in the world I had been in, that the world I awoke to seemed plastic, shallow and a shadow of the place I had inhabited for that brief moment while I was sleeping.
In my dream God took me into heaven and for a moment I got to experience the wonder and beauties of that world. It was so beautiful, so vibrant and alive that every fibre of my being seemed full of life and joy. I can no longer remember the specific details of the dream or where I was, who I spoke to etc because after I awoke it felt like the glory of the experience began to lift out of my consciousness. It felt like it was evaporating like dew on the grass as the sun comes up. I struggled to retain the memory, but I could feel it lifting and slipping out of my memory until about 30 minutes after I awoke I could no longer remember the dream, all I was left with was the memory of the memory. I can’t recall the beauty, but I remember thinking that this was more beautiful than any place I had ever been. It is probably God’s kindness that did not allow that memory to last, for to live in this world for longer than an hour knowing how hollow this world is, and how full the next is may just be the most painful way of existing.
During lockdown one of the most impactful books I read was “Imagine Heaven” in which the author John Burke has collected and collated the experiences of many people who have had “near death experiences” in which they seemingly experienced a world on the other side of death before being resuscitated. I was struck by the most common description of the world into which they briefly stepped – it was the most beautiful place that they had ever been. It would appear that beauty is a very important value in God’s kingdom which makes me think of Jesus’ prayer, “ Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
When we experience beauty there is something in the heart of every person that awakens and stirs with a numinous longing for our eternal home. As C.S. Lewis wrote “The sweetest thing in my life has been the longing to find the place all beauty came from” which is why I believe every time we create or pursue making the world more beautiful we are working toward the goal of Jesus’ prayer to bring heaven to earth.
In the same way that truth has been relativised in our culture so beauty is being driven from the public square as increasingly ugliness and utility has ground beauty out of our minds. We are told that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and whilst it is certainly true that we each experience beauty differently, the believer knows this statement is not true for there is an ultimate beauty in the person of God Himself. There is ultimate beauty which every other beauty is a reflection of because there is an ultimate beholder. God.
It’s time for us all to arise again and fill our world with beauty. Create, cultivate and appreciate this in the life for which you were made.