If you have ever beheld a magnificent sunrise or sunset, a majestic mountain range, or brilliant foliage gracing a landscape, you know how mesmerizing such beauty can be.
Beauty isn’t boring!
This thought dominated my mind as I read the end of John 6 this morning. After Jesus fed the five thousand, “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the wonderful words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69)
Whereas the vast majority of the people that Jesus fed were interested only in physical bread rather than in Jesus, the Bread of Life, Peter and the other apostles (except Judas) had come to recognize Jesus’ true identity and worth. For them there was no turning back. Jesus alone had the “wonderful words of eternal life.”
That phrase brought the words of an old hymn to mind:
Sing them over again to me,
Wonderful words of life!
Let me more of their beauty see,
Wonderful words of life!
Beauty isn’t boring! We always want to see more of it! That’s why we have a hard time tearing ourselves away from a stunning landscape.
Or consider the way of a man with a woman, especially on their wedding day. He is not content with one look, or even two or three looks. The fact is, he can’t take his eyes off her. Having seen her beauty, he craves more of it. “Let me more of her beauty see!” He longs to know her intimately.
The same is true spiritually when we come to know Jesus for who he really is — “the Holy One of God” and the Savior of all who believe.
True believers never move beyond the gospel but only more deeply into it.
Why?
Because beauty is never boring.