www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLi brary

Why Do We All Crave Beauty?
  Now how does this infinite divine beauty relate to our longing for beauty? I do believe that deeply rooted in every human heart is a longing for beauty. Why do we go to the Grand Canyon, the Boundary Waters, art exhibits, gardens? Why do we plant trees and flower beds? Why do we paint our inside walls? Why is it man and not the monkeys who decorated cave walls with pictures? Why is it that in every tribe of humans ever known there has always been some form of art and craftsmanship that goes beyond mere utility? Is it not because we long to behold and be a part of beauty? We crave to be moved by some rare glimpse of greatness. We yearn for a vision of glory. The poetry that endures from generation to generation generally does so because it gives expression to our deepest desires.

How Do We Attain Beauty?

But how shall we attain it? Who is worthy to behold the all-holy Maker of the universe? Or as the psalmist asks, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?"( Psalm 24:3 ). We have all sinned and fallen short of his glory ( Romans 3:23 ). We have not prized his beauty with anything like the fervor it deserves. And that is evil. But God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wrong ( Habakkuk 1:13 ). Therefore, the wages of sin is eternal death ( Romans 6:23 ). And unless someone intervenes, we will perish under God's righteous judgment and be cut off forever from every vestige of beauty. The apostle Paul put it like this in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 , "They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the face of the Lord and from the glory (or the beauty) of his might." The punishment of those who have not seen and loved the beauty of God's holiness in this age will be utter exclusion from his all-satisfying beauty in the age to come .