I have to be honest: This is my favorite piece I’ve written on beauty. It might be one of my favorites I’ve written period.

At Tapestry today, I blogged about Beauty resurrected. A taste:

"Beauty transforms. This does not mean that it smooths over like
retouched photos. It doesn’t erase–Christ’s resurrected body had scars
in his hands and feet. Instead, it draws us into God’s story and
through that, gives life and vitality. It takes a prostitute, a
mourning widow, and a rape victim and includes them in Christ’s
ancestry. It makes a couple grieving over infertility for almost a
hundred years give birth to a nation. It shows how a couple who
committed adultery then murder to hide their shame raised the man who
would build the most magnificent structure in Israel’s history."

(Read the rest here.)

I love the Easter season. In Lent, we join Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. In Passion Week, we enter into his suffering for mankind.

But in Easter, we join Christ’s defeat of death. We join his new life. We celebrate! To participate in this celebration of new life, I’m taking up two new things. The first, I mentioned before, is a new small group. It’s just three of us, and the study combines lectio divina with spiritual disciplines. I love the other two girls in the group. I’d say I can’t wait to see what God will do with this–and that’s true–but I already see him working.

The second is related: as part of the lectio divina we practice daily, I want to meditate through visual art. This is not a particular talent I have. I won’t be a rich and famous painter someday. But as I meditate on the patterns and rhythms of the Scripture, as I pray through them, I’m drawing, collaging (well, it’s a word now!), and painting.

So those are my Easter practices.