Soulfood

Trauma, Recovery, and the Beauty of God

What is beauty?

Experiential definition: “Beautiful thing are those that, when they are seen, are pleasing.” Thomas Aquinas “Beauty is the reason of which we admire things.” Francis J. Hall

Theological definition: Beauty is proximate, beauty is personal, beauty is a person, beauty is Jesus. Psalm 27: 4, 5, 7, and 10, and Colossians 1:15-16

Beauty is not distant or disengaged from us – Beauty is a person, Who knows us, and comes near to us.

Beauty saves in the day of trouble! (Psalm 27). The day of trouble is that which steals hope and/or destroys beauty. The psalmist runs to, seeks out, beauty in the day of trouble and hopes in the house of the Lord. Why? Because beauty gives what the day of trouble takes away – namely, hope. Hope exists because beauty exists. “I believe that I will look upon the LORD in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:13)

Three ways beauty works in recovery: first, it works in us – we are beautiful things. Secondly, the beauty of God works around us – we are given beautiful things. And thirdly, beauty works in our efforts towards God – we do beautiful things.

We are beautiful creatures. As God’s image-bearers we are His most beautiful work. We reflect God’s image in the following ways: We have agency, plasticity, we are relational, we have metacognition, we have a parasympathetic nervous system, and we have 5 senses.

We have agency – we have the capacity to will and the power to act to achieve our will. We have choices even in the midst of and after trauma. We can move.

We have plasticity – we are able to change. Transformation is built into our bodies. We are not stuck the way we are. We can be repaired and recover from trauma.

We are relational – the only thing that exceeds our capacity to destroy one another is our ability to build one another up and encourage each other. We can establish connection and find safety with others.

We have metacognition – we can think about our thinking. We are able to observe what we are observing and notice what we are experiencing. We are capable of getting outside ourselves.

We have a parasympathetic nervous system – we are able to calm down. We have some voluntary control over our bodies’ rest and relaxation. We can intentionally change our breathing rate which has calming effects on our bodies.

We have 5 senses – and all of them are able to experience beauty. All of them give us access to beauty.

We are given beautiful things – and they are entryways into encountering God. “Every good and perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights.” James 1:17

Consider, Engage, Regulate – we can consider beautiful things because of metacognition, and then engage with them through our 5 senses, and then as our parasympathetic nervous system reacts to our senses we are able to reconnect to our bodies and find rest.

Create, Build, Nurture – because we have agency, we can move from consideration to production and cultivation of beautiful things. We can imagine beauty and make beauty and tend beauty.

Entrust, Fellowship, Participate – the most beautiful thing we have been given in this life is relationships with God and each other. We are able to entrust ourselves to a safe and trustworthy person, be drawn into a safe community, and then become a safe place for others.

We can do beautiful things – we are instruments in God’s hands to work beautiful deeds for one another (Mark 14:5-6)

Trauma tells us that we are too broken, weak, and needy to do beautiful things. But Scripture teaches us that we are capable of doing beautiful things inspire of our brokenness, weakness, and neediness. Jesus praises Mary for doing what she could. Doing what she could was what in itself made her action beautiful. So we do what we can and trust that God will beautify it!

The hope contained in Beauty – the personal, nearness of Jesus – is at work in us and around us and in our efforts towards God. Only the glory of the cross is beautiful enough to bring us to the beauty of the tree of life at the center of the City of God, where God is the light and wipes every tear from our eyes. Thanks be to God!