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“Human beings are moved by beauty. If we want to change the world, we need, first of all, to be able to make people dream about beauty” (Rubem Azevedo Alves). How do you respond to that statement?

We all agree that there is a lot of ugly in our world: attitudes, actions, words, just to name a few. And it is easy for even Christians to get so caught up fighting ugly that we become ugly. The statement above suggests that the best weapon for fighting ugly is beauty. But where, in this world, can a person find beauty?

At the end of the creation account (Genesis 1:31), God reviews everything He has made and pronounces it “Good.” But “good” is a broad word and even more expansive in Hebrew than English. The simple meaning is pleasant; agreeable to the senses. But the meaning changes depending upon what “sense” you have in mind. When the sense is sight, good can easily be replaced with beautiful. For example, Abraham was concerned about losing his wife in Egypt because she was fair to look upon – beautiful (Genesis 12). Numerous examples could be cited to support the idea that beauty is a key concept in the Bible. If you need proof, do a Google search on “the theology of beauty.”

Few people would debate that “human beings are moved by beauty.” Why are roses so highly valued? They are beautiful, as are mountains, lakes, sunsets, etc. God made our world beautiful beyond description! So why have some Christians become such negative people? One answer is that they have become so focused on the ugly that they no longer see the beauty.

Similarly, few people would debate that God made the female sex beautiful in the eyes of men. The women described as beautiful include Sarah, Rachel, Rebekkah, Bathsheba,  Abishag, Vashti, and the heroine of Song of Solomon. Yes, the New Testament talks about Sarah’s inner beauty, and that will be my next point. But the Bible makes it clear that men were moved when they saw the outward beauty of these women (See quote above.) Being moved by the beauty of a woman need not include the lust Jesus spoke of (Matthew 5:28). God made women pleasant to the eye. The beauty is His creation, not theirs. Thank God for bringing that sense of beauty into your life, just as you do when you see a rose or a sunset. Sin takes place when you attempt to cut that rose and take it home with you. That is what Jesus had in mind in Matthew 5:28.

A third area of beauty we can all agree upon is a beautiful attitude! It may be a spirit of forgiveness or graciousness. Perhaps nothing moves a stranger like a genuine smile that conveys warmth and acceptance. A gift, given without a reason, almost always moves the recipient, as does a quiet word at a timely moment. Suppose a woman leaves off the external claims to beauty spoken of by Peter (expensive clothes, jewelry, or elaborate hairstyles) but does not add the beauty of spirit spoken of here. In that case, that person has no beauty at all – nothing with which to move the world.

Let’s go back to the quote from the top: “Human beings are moved by beauty. If we want to change the world, we need, first of all, to be able to make people dream about beauty” (Rubem Azevedo Alves). We often think of evangelism as presenting God’s Word to the lost, and it is. But evangelism is also “making people dream about beauty.”

How do you do that? Is beauty a part of your evangelistic approach? God has made the world in which we live beautiful; despite sin's effects, it still is! When God saw that the man He had made needed a partner, He created a beautiful woman, and He is still in that business. Beautiful attitudes are the exception in our bombastic world and still get attention.

“If we want to change the world, we need, first of all, to be able to make people dream about beauty.”