God's Beauty in Humans

At the moment, the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France are in full swing.

Day by day we are seeing more videos and news clips of the stunning abilities of individuals and the human body. While the Olympics, at its heart, is a competition and every person is striving for a metal, it is also a beautiful display of the beauty of humanity. It is hard not to marvel and just how much these athletes can do. I know that the full range of emotions is also on display as people try their best (which is miles beyond what I could even attempt) and still fail to win. We see both joy and grief in these competitions, but I cannot help but to see beauty through it all.
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On my grumpier days, I can be heard saying to my friend Melissa, “Mel, I hate people!  People are the worst!  Why do we have to deal with people!?”  She reminds me that a person is often lovely: it is just collectively that people can be awful.  Other days, it is the other way around.  Other days, she is grumpy at people in general and I am the one to remind her that people can also be wonderfully kind and full of surprises.  It is on our grumpier days that I like to think about the beauty of the Olympics.  On my grumpy days, I ask God, “Why do you pay attention to us at all?  We are horrible to each other!  Why do you even love and care about us?”  And then I watch the wonders of the human that God designed, and I am floored by the beauty of God’s creation.  On those same days, I will get caught off-guard by a stranger offering a compliment, and I will see the kindness that God instilled in our hearts.  Other days, it is the hug of a family member… and I wonder how anyone could want to do away with humanity.  Yes, hell can be other people… but so is our paradise.  It seems like the greatest contradiction: other people can be our greatest pain and the source of our comfort.  

In the end, watching the Olympics doesn’t make me want to attempt ANYTHING they are doing on screen, but it does make me want to make something beautiful.  It makes me want to create so that this world is more beautiful because of me and my work.

The question is, what will you do to make this world beautiful?
 
Blessings,
Pastor Chris