Beauty & Affliction

"There are only two things that pierce the human heart.
One is beauty. The other is affliction."
Simone Weil

"Because this is so true, we must have a measure of beauty in our lives proportionate to our affliction. No, more. Much more. Is this not God's prescription for us? Just take a look around. The sights and sounds, the aromas and sensations—the world is overflowing with beauty. God seems to be rather enamored with it. Gloriously wasteful. Apparently, He feels that there ought to be plenty of it in our lives." John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire.

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of my baby sister's death by a traumatic brain injury (TBI); she was only 47. In the months following her accident, I found myself regularly bringing home fresh flowers from Publix. Snipping, watering, arranging, inhaling, beholding. A gentle reminder that beauty still existed in my sad days.

Similarly, I moved to NYC the day after 9/11 for a few months. The desperate posters of never-to-be-found missing people haunted my days and my dreams. I'd often pick generous bouquets of fresh, bright flowers from the street markets to put in my sad hotel room. Snipping, watering, arranging, inhaling, beholding.

"Beauty soothes," artist Mako Fujimura told me at the time.

Something in me inherently knew I needed beauty to my ease my afflictions. God put that in me. And He has provided proportionately. Exhale.

We all have affliction. How might God ease yours with soothing beauty?

JUDY

P.S. Here is a wonderful prayer for the anniversary of a loss. Click HERE.