Monday, July 25, 2011

Beauty Isn't Haphazard

by Janielle Beh on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 10:53pm

Colours, shapes and patterns fascinate me.

I love photography, so I tend to look out for things in a perspective that may be totally different from someone who may simply pass it by and miss an extraordinary detail or scene.

Because I love colours, shapes, patterns and all things alive, I can spend ages in the garden or some natural setting taking macro photos of flowers and insects. I used to spend nearly 2 hours on many afternoons after I'd finish my studies or music, just basking in the sun and looking at the tiniest spaces of the garden in search of anything specially unusual and beautiful. Most people won't have the patience to hunch over a little seemingly insignificant flower or spider for a long period of time. But it is through the lens that I can appreciate the unbelievable intricacies of a simple flower. And I love love love it!

Symmetry and balance fascinates me to no end. Every time I go back to nature, I can't help but wonder how such a beautiful, extraordinary, living thing can grow out of mere soil. How? I'm at a loss for words. How..?

How does one plant have five perfectly symmetrical petals and another have six? Or twenty four? Its perfectly balanced and shapely and beautiful. The same goes with insects. Even the common, boring, loathsome house fly or mosquito has a structure that is worth examining. I can go on being amazed my entire life!

When an artist sets out to paint a beautiful portrait, he does not just swish a whole lot of colours onto the canvas haphazardly. There is a plan. A sketch. Then hours and hours of imagination, painstaking detail in delicate brush strokes and careful touch-ups. Beauty is not haphazard. It cannot occur by chance. That is impossible!

Yet we think, while nature is beautiful and glorious, it is also terrifying and unpredictable. How do we weigh this antithesis and make sense of this beautiful yet terrible world we live in?

That is the question. I am afraid to answer it because then I might go on forever and still not come up with something that will satisfy my soul!

Then I remember the verse in the Bible where the Apostle Paul says, 'I planted, and Apollos watered, but it is God who gives the increase.'

Wow. There you go. That is enough to satisfy the first bit of my question. It is GOD who makes it grow! We may plant a seed, water it, and the sun shine on it, but ultimately it is GOD who gives the increase. Who provided the DNA for a 5 petal flower? Or a brilliant yellow for the sunflower? Or the delicate, soft texture of the petal? You know the answer.

Beauty is not haphazard. It cannot occur by chance. Symmetry, order and balance comes from a master design. No doubt. I'm inclined to think, after all I've seen, that there was a master plan.

And you know what, the key to understanding the beauty and unpreditability of our world is to remember this:

THERE IS STILL A MASTER PLAN.

~ j a n i e ll e

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