The Beauty Cure by Dena Hobbs

This summer has been a challenging time for me. My youngest child graduated high school at the end of May. Although graduation is a happy occasion, this time of endings is also filled with a certain amount of stress and sadness. The last few months of endings definitely took their toll on my body and soul.

Then I contracted COVID at my son’s graduation ceremony. There must have been a virus tagging along with one of the hugs I received that day. Since we left for our family beach vacation the day after graduation, I found myself two days into our vacation with a positive COVID test and chesty cough hundreds of miles from home.

Locked in the Room with Fear

I will admit that during the first day of quarantining in the main bedroom of our condo, I felt some fear, disappointment, and even anger at my circumstances. As I lay propped under the pink coral patterned bedspread, I kept thinking about how unfair it all was. This was the first real vacation we had taken in two years. Would this be the last summer I would get to take a vacation with both children and here I was missing it? College will keep them busy after all. Why was this time being taken from me? Would I ever get this moment again?

Thankfully, my husband began waking me up just after dawn each day to take an early morning walk on the beach. On these walks, as I swept my feet along the shore, I would feel my anger melting down into the sand.

As I watched the daybreak over the gulf, the waves would wash not only over my feet but also over my worries, taking them out to sea and out of my hands.

At some point in our walk, I would relax and open enough to stop and let myself be filled with all the beauty around me.

Freed from Fear

I would marvel at the still shiny clouds, how they glistened in the fresh sky. As birds fished in front of me, I would delight in their swift flight and clever skill. As I breathed deep breaths of salty air, I would give thanks for the wind whipping the waves.

After I became full of both nourishing oxygen and God’s beauty, I would start my walk back to the condo. Often on the way home, I would pick up some shells or sea rocks, holding these icons in my hand as a way to come back to God’s presence later in the day. Looking at them would help me remember the world is still God’s and it is still glorious, even if I didn’t feel so glorious at this time.

A couple of days into our morning ritual, I realized I was not just getting some fresh air and exercise, I was practicing a spiritual discipline. Taking time each day to recognize and fill my soul with the beauty around me was healing. Healing for my sick body and weary soul. Allowing the world’s beauty to lead me into worship of the God who created it transformed me, from bitter and tired, to hopeful and restive. I didn’t have to lay in that pink coral bed filled with regret, I could rest back into the arms of God and know that the maker of the universe had me and was with me even in this time.

I began to sink into the truth of one of my favorite Psalms.

        “The LORD is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh – my adversaries and foes – they shall stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident.

        One thing I asked of the LORD, that I will seek after:  to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.”

Psalm 27:1-4, NRSV

Even though I felt attacked by a virus and some bad luck, I did not have to be wrought with fear. I could behold the beauty of God all around me. And in reflecting on this beauty and the Creator who made it, I could remember that I was still in the house of the Lord: the world around me transformed into God’s temple.

Opening Our Eyes to Beauty

By the end of our vacation (or my sickcation), I was glad I had spent the worst of my COVID days at the beach. I think being able to soak up wind and waves and sand and sea helped me deal with my illness better than I would have at home. The beauty buoyed me at a time when I felt myself sinking.

But we don’t all have to go to the beach (or get COVID) to practice the discipline of soaking up God’s beauty. Since returning home, I have tried to continue this practice. It can be something as simple as noticing a beautiful flower growing in our garden, or a spectacular thundercloud brewing in the sky.

Or maybe the glory of a child laughing or my dog sleeping in a sunbeam. Even my husband’s fresh baked bread can send me into worship of the God who made the fields, the seeds, and this wonderful man who folds flour and water into nourishing food.

As Irish priest, poet, and philosopher John O’Donohue wrote in his book Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

“When our eyes are graced with wonder, the world reveals its wonders to us. There are people who see only dullness in the world and that is because their eyes have already been dulled. So much depends on how we look at things. The quality of our looking determines what we come to see.”

The Beauty Balm

My time with COVID forced me to regain this ability to look with wonder. When we are weary and worn, hungry for something to sustain us to the next day, it’s then our souls remember to look for something to nourish us, to heal us. In this state, beauty comes in as balm to heal and revive us.

Whether you are weary or well, at home or traveling to new locations, I encourage you to look for the beauty around you. Let your eyes be open to all God has placed in our midst to delight and inspire. For some of you this will be extremely easy. One cannot take a road trip to the Grand Canyon or the redwood forest without being overcome by God’s beauty. But even for those of us in more ordinary places, God’s glory is all around us. It is in every tree, every field of grain, every sunrise, and every starry night. God has mercifully sent us reminders of His grace to buoy us and heal us, to sustain us and lead us deeper into his love.

Dena Douglas Hobbs is the co-author of When Anxiety Strikes: Help and Hope for Managing Your Storm which she wrote with her husband, Jason Hobbs. She is a campus minister in middle Georgia and a mom to two young adults and three spoiled dogs. You can find more of her writing at denadouglashobbs.com.

 

 

 

Diana Flegal

Writers Coach/ Freelance Editor/ Collage Artist/ Jesus Follower

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One comment

  1. I love this so much! I too find that God uses the natural world (especially the ocean!) to bring healing. Thank you for this meditation, Dena!

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