I have been thinking about the Cross (more Easter than Christmas, but what's one without the other) and beauty. Is God and everything He does beautiful? I would answer that question with a resounding YES! But that has some interesting, if not disturbing consequences.

It provides for The Cross, in particular, a unique and not often (at least I've never heard it put this way) articulated scene. A scene of beauty. Amidst all the blood, suffering, and sacrifice there's beauty. A terrifying beauty. That Jesus hanging on The Cross is beautiful is almost too much for me to comprehend. But consider the alternative: is it a scene to be disgusted of? Should I turn my head, and be revolted, and say, "Poor fellow."? While the scene is graphic and violent, especially for our warm and fuzzy Christian subculture, it is beautiful. For there at that Cross, I must do the horror of all horrors, and go and let His blood drip on me, so that I might be washed by His beautiful blood.