Simplicity: The Very Soul of Beauty
Oh how I long for simplicity! Not necessarily in a material sense. While I do believe it’s good to only have what is useful and beautiful, I am no minimalist. I like my walls and corners filled with craft and color.
It is a simplicity of heart that I crave.
“Now it is a rule of nature that the inward affects the outward, as light shines from the centre of the lantern through the glass: when, therefore, the truth is kindled within, its brightness soon beams forth in the outward life and conversation. It is said that the food of certain worms colours the cocoons of silk which they spin: and just so the nutriment upon which a man's inward nature lives gives a tinge to every word and deed proceeding from him. To walk in the truth, imports a life of integrity, holiness, faithfulness, and simplicity--the natural product of those principles of truth which the gospel teaches, and which the Spirit of God enables us to receive.” —Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening November 28th
“In the first place, the gospel is very simple. So Christians should be simple and plain in their habits. There should be about our manner, our speech, our dress, our whole behaviour, that simplicity which is the very soul of beauty.” —Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening May 24th
The very soul of beauty!
A “slow and simple life” is not possible apart from Christ. It is a growing trend, and there are many creatives that capture it well, and it’s easy to think it is merely an aesthetic. But it is not so. We must have God to rest our hearts in and the gospel to anchor our lives in. Simplicity of the heart must be what beautifies our lives.
We must bake our gingerbread to the glory of God. We must string our cranberries to the glory of God. It is the only way to make our earthly toil transcendent. Working unto man rather than the Lord is “vanity” or “a chasing after the wind” as the The Preacher in Ecclesiastes describes.
Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.
The world is restless and weighty. But the LORD’s children drink from a better well.
The gospel of John records Jesus’ words to the woman at the well. He said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
It is Christmas. The world is going to begin offering us more. Buy more. Do more. Be more. But the world cannot satisfy our appetites. “Why do you spend your labor for that which does not satisfy?” (Isaiah 55)
Instead may the Lord make us women of pure devotion to Him: simplicity of the heart, that which is the very soul of beauty.