Beauty is Unbearable

The philosopher Albert Camus once wrote, “Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.”

Why does Camus say that beauty is unbearable? Had Camus spoken of the weight of illness, the sting of suffering, or the cold hand of injustice, we would have understood him at once. Yet the thinker confesses to despair in the very presence of beauty.

We too recognise something of this inner conflict. The beauty of a rose lasts only for a moment; within a few days it withers and dries up. Old age shows no mercy to the beauty and vigour of youth. Even the most beautiful of human relationships, the tenderness and love of a husband for his wife, and of parents for their children, these too reach their end.

Here lies our dilemma. For we do not want them to end. We long to press beauty to our hearts forever, yet death tears away all that we cherish and all that gives us joy.

Beauty would be a cruel absurdity were it not for the event that took place at Easter. The empty tomb gives birth to hope. The encounter with the risen Jesus grants us a new perspective.

The beauty that surrounds us continues to delight us because it points to the goodness of the Creator. We know that it passes away. We also know why it passes away. Suffering and decay remind us that creation is no longer the pristine garden of the beginning. Death stands as a witness that sin entered the world. Yet now the Redeemer has taken away sin by the cross and has triumphed over death. Jesus has risen! And so the beautiful gifts of God that we enjoy now become a pledge of even more glorious gifts that God has prepared for those who believe in his Son.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3–4)

For those of us who place our trust in the Lord Jesus, beauty consoles us and fills us with hope. Beauty grants us a fleeting glimpse of a blessed eternity — an eternity which, by the grace of God and through the resurrection of Christ, we shall one day enjoy without end.