By David Faust
Is your life less colorful than it used to be? Maybe so. According to a post on Culture-Critic.com, “Every aspect of life is being stripped of color.”
For example, consumer preferences for new car colors have shifted toward black, gray, silver, and white. Gone are the days when highways sported lots of red, green, and blue vehicles. Today, 80 percent of new cars are grayscale.
Building styles are shifting, too. The author complains about “copy-paste, colorless architecture that comes from nowhere and yet exists everywhere.”
Drifting Toward Blandness
Tastes in art and fashion change constantly from one decade to another. (Those of us who remember the 1970s aren’t lobbying for a return to the clothing styles and home décor common in that era!)
But what is behind the drift toward blandness? Are consumers opting for simplicity because they are tired of over-stimulation? Or is financial profit driving the trend because grayscale products are cheaper to produce? The writer argues that companies mass market bland, homogenous products that “appeal to the broadest possible tastes and offend no one.” Noting a similar trend in music, he points out that compared to past years, few of today’s top songs contain even a single key change. “Complexity is being stripped out,” he says, “to appeal to worldwide streaming audiences.”
Reflections of God’s Glory
I’m neither an art critic nor a fashion designer, and I gladly leave home decorating to the experts. I don’t pay much attention to the hue of a church building’s carpet, and I don’t care what color car you drive or how you style your hair. After all, the Bible says, “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7, New International Version).
I do appreciate beautiful things, though, for God “has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Consider the ordered complexity of Genesis 1, the detailed craftsmanship of the Old Testament tabernacle and temple, and the romantic stylings of the Song of Songs. God turned a scarlet cord from Rahab’s red-light district into a symbol of salvation (Joshua 2:18-21, 6:25), and he promised to make crimson-colored sins as white as snow and wool (Isaiah 1:18). Heaven’s eye-popping color palette includes a rainbow, crystal-clear glass, pearls, gold, and sparkling gems (Revelation 4:3-6, 21:11-21).
Instead of creating a grayscale world restricted to shades of black and white, the Lord gave us brown deserts, green trees, purple grapes, red strawberries, orange pumpkins, black coal, clear icicles, white polar bears, gray elephants, blue skies, bright-colored birds, and tropical fish. No art gallery is large enough to contain God’s handiwork, which is displayed in country fields, mountain forests, urban parks, and fresh-cut flower bouquets.
We honor God by recognizing beauty as a reflection of his glory, and by pursuing excellence in whatever we do. Do you appreciate a skillful cook’s creation of a delicious plate of food? The precise engineering of a well-designed tunnel or bridge? The orderliness of a landscaped lawn or a well-weeded garden? The melody, rhythm, and harmony of a well-written and well-played song? The artistry of a finely crafted poem?
Something ‘Beyond’
Another recent article, this one published on the website Apologetics.org, is called “Confronted With Beauty: An Argument for the Existence of God.” The author, Ryan Snuffer, writes:
Majestic mountain vistas, trickling waterfalls, meandering trails lined with mossy stumps, stones and towering trees all move me in a way that is felt deeper than any of my five primary senses. I enjoy contemplating the growth of a plant or the transformation of a tadpole into a frog. When I visit an art gallery, I like to stand about 8 feet away from a painted canvas and loosely stare at the colors, the texture and the composition of the painting. Musicians performing genres as varied as classical, Celtic, jazz, and traditional folk have produced music that has given me goosebumps, yielded waves of joyful tears, or produced a deep-as-the-soul sense of peace.
“One would expect to find beauty and experiences like we are addressing,” Snuffer observes, “in a universe that did not come about by random chance but was created by an intelligent being who loves his creatures. There really is no point in passionate love of beauty for humans if the only point in our existence is survival.” This idea has profound implications for our understanding of God and the world, even leading to an “aesthetic argument” for the existence of God. After all, “We are made in God’s image. As his image-bearers, we are driven to create. Most of those of us who do not create at a high level appreciate others who do. And nearly everyone appreciates beauty on some level.”
The writer concludes, “The fact that there is a universal recognition and appreciation for beauty strongly points to something Beyond—something that makes no sense in a purposeless universe.” That’s a point worth considering for all of us who follow the incarnate Word, who revealed God in loving color.
David Faust serves as contributing editor of Christian Standard and senior associate minister with East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the author of Married for Good.
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