Jesus, the Artist, the Poet

"Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"(Matthew 6:26-30, ESV)
God is such a wonderful Being. He not only created us and everything in the world and the universe, He also gave us emotions of love and an appreciation for beauty. Even when Jesus was teaching the people, He used things from nature, to be sure, to emphasize His teachings, but He did so with a choice of language that was at once beautiful and poetic. He called attention to the beauty that was around Him. Why? Did He do this merely because of the teaching value of the scene He describes, or rather, did He use the beautiful expressions to also give peace and comfort to the hearer? Do not the words of the Lord bring joy to the reader or the listener? Remember that the Lord has called us to love Him with all our hearts, not just our minds or even just our minds plus our strength. Those are necessary, too, but God wants us to love Him and Him onlyThere is a natural beauty to the Bible, the Word of God. It is not there just to inform us or instruct us. It does that quite adequately. But the Word of God was given to us as a great treasure to be read over and over again, that we might listen to the majesty of the words, to see the beautiful scenes that God describes to us. Consider the lilies, the beautifully fragrant lilies of the field. I have seen wild iris flowers in lonely places along the highways of northern Japan. I have seen the beautiful California poppies covering the hillsides, lasting for only a few days and then gone. I have seen the thick cherry blossoms on so many beautiful Vancouver streets, only to fall in a few days and fill the gutters with pink mounds of petals. God is artistic and God is poetic. Consider your life, the beauty that He created in you, and then you will want to share His love with others. The greatest thing in the world was God dying on the cross for all of humanity that ever lived or ever will live. That is truly an expression of love but it is also an expression of the greatest Poet that ever lives. If you are bored with reading your Bible or think that it isn't interesting, pick it up again and rediscover the words of the Poet. Your heart will sing with Him, you'll see the beauty that is around you, and your worries and your cares will suddenly regain their proper proportions. When you live your life under the blood of Jesus, you will become a person who loves the beauty that He loves and your heart will be filled with that beauty.