Beautiful Things

 Beautiful things have always been important to me. I remember as a child watching old movies and being enamored with the elegant dresses that the ladies wore and, believe it or not, even as a child, I loved interiors. The intricate wall moldings, the carved furniture, elaborate window treatments with texture and color and trimmings...I absorbed it all in and dreamed of what it would be like to live in one of those grand homes as a little girl wearing pretty dresses with ringlets and bows in my hair and playing with beautiful dolls. 

One night, when I was about eight or nine years old, I had a dream about heaven...a very vivid dream that I still remember 50 years later. It was full of light and beautiful blue skies and gorgeous flowers everywhere. The sweet aroma filled the air and in my dream, I literally stood in awe and drank it in. I have said many times that that's when God set eternity in my heart. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." I think it's so interesting that this verse carries both the idea of beauty and the idea of eternity. 

As I got older, I got the impression from Christianity that beauty was vanity. We were reminded constantly how women should not adorn themselves with braided hair and gold and pearls and costly attire. Every Easter and Christmas my mother would make us a new dress. Even as early as six or eight, I wanted to design my dress...pick out the fabric and lace and the ribbons for my hair. As a teenager, I would pour over fashion magazines and save my babysitting money for new wardrobe pieces and jewelry.

My best friend Kim was the only girl out of four kids in her family. She had the most beautiful white, French provincial bedroom set with a canopy bed and pink ruffled bedding. I was so jealous! At around age ten, I got to pick out new bedroom furniture and bedding and by then, I wanted something modern and hip...it was the seventies after all. I planned exactly how I would arrange everything and begged for a hanging egg chair to complete the look...but it never came. With every move, I would dream of decorating my new room and making it the most beautiful room in the house...a room that would be the envy of my friends. 

At sixteen, I got my first car and a job at the most popular clothing store in town, Parisians. I spent almost every paycheck on clothes and shoes...and made great use of my employee discount. I majored in fashion merchandising so I could work around all of this beauty. I took classes in interior design and cooking and even learned how to make food look beautiful, create a gorgeous table setting and entertain with style and class. I spent most of teens and early twenties surrounded by the beauty of several clothing stores. 

As a newly married woman, I loved decorating our new home on a budget and throwing elaborate dinner parties for friends. People I knew soon started asking me to help them decorate their homes which turned into a career of 30 years for me. 

I absorbed the message from my childhood and youth that wanting beautiful things was 'worldly' and 'idolatry'. I carried the shame of my love for beauty for many years. I had self-contempt for my desire to surround myself with beautiful things and the need to create beauty. 

Until one day, while studying the Bible, I read about how God instructed the Israelites on how to adorn the tabernacle that they were to build for him. He described the fabric for the curtains, how many rings to hang them on, the design of the lampstand, the priests clothing...God was the original designer and he LOVED beauty and blessed it! It is everywhere around us in nature, in humans created in his image, in the animal kingdom, under the sea and the vast uniqueness of fish and sea creatures. He surrounds us with his creativity and beauty. 

And you know what I have discovered? He DELIGHTS in my love of beautiful things. He placed within me eyes to see, appreciate and CREATE beauty just like him! He blesses my love of beauty and calls it GOOD. I no longer feel shame when I purchase something strictly because it is beautiful. He is the original creator and he has placed that DNA in me...and I realize how much like him I am.