Mirrors

So many things in today's world seem to be mediocre and base. The arts are especially so. The Vivaldi I am listening to right now seems to be good and beautiful, yet nobody appreciates that type of beauty anymore. Instead of the rich variety found there, we settle for the dry repetition of popular music. The same applies to art. It seems the Picasso's are far more valuable than the Monet's, the R. Kelly's over the Beethoven's, and the Stephanie Meyer's over Charles Dickens. Indeed, it seems that people today prefer mediocrity and average beauty over anything rich and gorgeous. 

 

I am of the belief that all beauty is a reflection of the divine. Everything in the world reflects some amount of divine beauty into our temporal world. This would then obviously require a hierarchy of beautiful things in life. This hierarchy seems to match what we see in the world today. Vivaldi reflects more divine light or truth to us than Louis Armstrong and he turn reflects more light than the Black-Eyed Peas. The same tiered format is found in every field or situation we can inspect. But if Vivaldi reflects more light, why does popular culture embrace and enshrine less beautiful things? 

  

 

Just as all things reflect a certain amount of divinity, I believe that each person can absorb a different amount of light and truth. Indeed, as we grow "line upon line" we will experience and "increase of learning" and our knowledge, understanding, and perception of beauty becomes more perfect and full. As divine light touches us and we internalize that light, we increase in our capacity to perceive light. 

Indeed, we can picture the world as a bunch of fun-house mirrors reflecting something which we cannot clearly see. Each mirror catches some of the truth, but only reflects that portion. Often this portion is distorted and confused because it is not the whole picture. But as we study the more perfect mirrors (such as the scriptures, words of the prophets, and other truthful things) we can gain a clearer perspective which helps us understand all the other reflections. If you are a person who has studied and understands the greater picture, these more misguided and warped perspectives seem less appealing. 

I hope this made sense, it's a complicated idea, and is one which I need to refine more. I hope each of us can become more perfect mirrors of God's light and will surround ourselves with other such mirrors. In the name of Jesus Christ, the light of the world, amen.