Today I finished "The Rooky Booky" -- Linette Martin's biography of Hans Rookmaaker, 20th-century Christian art historian and founder of Dutch L'Abri.
Rookmaaker believed that appreciating beauty was an essential part of what it means to be human. I was intrigued by what he said to a young artist friend about the importance of buying beautiful things:
"Oh yes, but you must sometimes buy such things to make you more fully human. Maybe I have spent a little too much at times on such things, and people say it is not practical. But it is more fully practical because it takes into account all reality. Sometimes you must eat a little less in order to buy a picture or a record. It would impoverish your life and at last your spiritual walk if you think only of those things that you can eat or wear.
"You would become a pauper if you did not buy beautiful things. Sometimes they are more important that anything else."
2 comments:
That's a fascinating quote. I'll have to think about it a bit more, but I think I agree with it. Thanks.
Here's some Biblical justification for enjoying God's gifts in this life rather than focussing all of our energies on (e.g.) evangelism.
Deuteronomy 20 outlines instructions for "holy war". The war itself is not the goal - the goal is rest under God's blessing in the promised land, and the war is merely a means to this end. Exemption from battle is therefore given to those with opportunity to experience rest in the land: those with new houses, vineyards and wives. The war itself is only a means to the end of winning and enjoying the promised land that under God's blessing. Similarly, fruit trees may not be cut down to aid the war effort, because they could later be enjoyed in the land.
In the Lord's prayer we pray "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". It pleases God when Christians, as far as possible in a fallen world, try to make this world a little more like heaven. There will be beautiful things in our promised land, and there are beautiful things to enjoy here, too. Like the Israelites, we must not destroy the "fruit trees" on our way to the promised land - both evangelism AND enjoying God's good gifts with thankfulness are expressions of worship and bring Him great joy :)
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