Short Stories and Essays
A SHORT ESSAY ON BEAUTY
[Essay was written by John E. Enslen on a rainy day, March 2, 2021. The talk was first given at a Family Home Evening at 240 Pinto Road, Wetumpka, AL 36093, on March 3, 2021.]
I have always been impressed with one of the earliest, and perhaps the very earliest, of the commandments which Jehovah gave to Adam. “And the Lord took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Genesis 2:15) I believe it to be a reasonable interpretation to say that the Lord directed Adam to make the garden look neat, clean, and beautiful, and to keep it looking that way. (I also see that as a commandment to physically labor, but that is another subject for another essay.)
I believe that we can deduct from the Lord’s instructions to Adam that the Lord appreciates and promotes beauty. Indeed, in the same chapter of Ecclesiastes that speaks of a season for every thing and a time to every purpose, we read that God “hath made every thing beautiful.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) God had pronounced all of his original creations as “good,” and based on all those parts of the earth that I have visited and seen, “good” includes an element of unique beauty everywhere .
We are admonished by our 13th Article of Faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to seek after those things which are “lovely.” The Lord puts it in our hearts to beautify his temples, (see Ezra 7:27 and Psalm 48:2) and modern prophets have counseled us to make and keep our own homes and properties beautiful:
We humans almost universally seem to have an inherit natural attraction to things and people who are beautiful. Although God creates, appreciates, and promotes beautiful things, unlike mankind, He does not measure man by his outward beauty.“Keep in good repair and beautify your homes, your yards, farms, and businesses. Repair the fences. Clean up and paint where needed. Keep your lawns and your gardens well-groomed. Whatever your circumstance, let your premises reflect orderliness, beauty, and happiness.” (President Spencer W. Kimball, “Family Preparedness,” General Conference address, Welfare Session, April 1976)
Of course, inward and outward beauty are not mutually exclusive. Mary, the mother of Jesus, had both. Dianne, my now deceased wife, had both. You have no doubt known people who were beautiful “inside and out.”“But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; for the Lord seeth not as men seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)
Outward beauty, though the world worships it, can be a curse to man. To trust in or flout our outward beauty, or even worse to become the servant of it, is vain and prideful. Beautiful people can unnecessarily invite temptation into their lives when they are over-focused on their outward appearance.“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” (Matthew 23:27)
May the beauty of the Lord be upon us (see Psalms 90:17) is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.“And it is requisite with the justice of God that men should be judged according to their works; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, that they should also, at the last day, be restored unto that which is good. “(Alma 41:3)