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From Leslie Griffiths, Methodist Minister:ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý

Beauty – what is it? Where can I find it? How should I describe it? I sit on the tube wondering how on earth to answer such questions. I look around me and find one possible answer. There are some strikingly good-looking people in our crowded compartment. In the world of entertainment people are paid for being beautiful. And good luck to them all. But there has to be more to it than that. That kind of beauty fades, decrepitude awaits all of us; even the most wondrous beauty, whatever the advertisers say, is soon at the mercy of old age. There I am, on the tube, thinking these dolorous thoughts, when something happens that makes sense of my questions.. A woman joins us. Somehow she gets her pushchair into a carriage already heaving with passengers. They begrudgingly give her space, their displeasure only too obvious. But that baby. She’s gorgeous. She smiles at everyone and gurgles her way into their affections. Attitudes soften. Twinkles appear in the eyes of hardened commuters. They make little faces, choo choo noises, funny gestures. The whole space has been transformed. Nice words are offered to the little one’s mum. It’s good to be alive. On a tube. Full of people. Underground.

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Beauty is more than what you see. For the most part it tends to be trapped deep down inside us. Until something happens to shake it, to shock it to the surface. It comes with a sigh, or a shout, or a laugh, or through tears. We’re surprised by joy. Overwhelmed by love. We see meaning in the midst of chaos – in the embrace of two lovers, in the blessing of an old man, in the moment ancient offences are forgiven, in the mangled form of a man dying on a cross. That’s beauty for you. It’s the glory halleluiah feeling, the peace that passes understanding that lives, lurks, deep down in our hearts. When you see it, sense it, you just know that that’s what beauty is, something that never alters when it alteration finds.