Ben’s May Letter
Dear Friends in Christ,
One, years ago, I sat in a parking lot that struck me as unusually ugly. The weeds were high, the concrete slowly chipping away, the dirt cracked and dry. And I thought to myself how is this place so ugly? But then an idea came to mind that didn’t come from me—what are you doing to make it beautiful? And something switched in me—from imagining I was entitled to see beauty around me, to realizing that I was called to help make some places around me more beautiful. It’s not a thought my own mind would have come up with—I can only credit the Holy Spirit.
It is easy to imagine this time of year that beauty is automatic, a function of the natural world.. And sometimes it is—but often it is a team effort, of nature and human labor. (A side note—the church grounds look beautiful right now, because of the work of many hard working gardeners) It is a choice by God that makes the world beautiful and humans able to appreciate it. And it is a human response to want to, in turn, make the places under their control beautiful as well.
Perhaps that’s why so many perceptive thinkers—like Fyodor Dostoevsky, Dorothy Day, and Annie Dillard—have sensed a connection between beauty and grace. Because grace, too, is a choice made by God; so is the ability of human beings to experience grace. And it is a classically human response to want to, in turn, show grace to others. We are made to witness beauty and receive God’s love— and we are meant to create beauty, and show that love to others.
I did not create beauty in that unusually ugly parking lot. I hope someone else did! But it did remind me that I was called to create beauty and bring grace to the places in my life where I had a bit of control. It reminded me that it was one thing to enjoy the beauty of the world, one thing to know God’s love—and another to go and bring it to the world.
This lovely month, may you make beauty and show grace. It is our response to the God who created us to receive love.
In Christ,
Rev. Ben