As an artist, I think a lot about beauty.
Beauty in music. Beauty in nature. Beauty in stories.
In many ways, beauty has been like a compass—pointing me toward what is good and true.
Because beauty has exerted such a force in my life, I’ve never been able to merely bask in it as if it were the final page in a story, closed and complete.
Instead, it has sent me on a journey—one shaped by questions of meaning, purpose, and faith.
Beauty may not be the most traditional starting point for those deeper questions.
My dad’s journey of faith, for instance, came through reason and study—carefully looking into history and evidence.
I honor that story deeply.
But that wasn’t my path.
My path had less to do with history and more to do with beauty.
When I look at creation—the elegance of a butterfly, the majesty of the stars, the mystery of creatures in the ocean—I find it hard not to think there is a wise design behind it all.
I know many people disagree, and I respect that. But I can’t shake the sense that there’s more. That beauty means something.
That instinct isn’t a proof.
But it’s a pull. A trace. A clue.
Wherever you are on your journey with deeper questions, simply by way of illustration: my own journey toward beauty has led me to deeply admire the person of Jesus.
When I read about him—his words, his miracles, his mercy—I’m drawn to its beauty.
I’ve never read a story so beautiful I thought it had to be true. But I feel that way about his.
Even if it weren’t true, I’d want it to be.
That’s the kind of story it is.
That’s the kind of person he is.
Old Testament Scholar Tim Mackie puts it this way: “Beauty is its own apologetic.”
I get that.
Beauty doesn’t argue—it invites.
It doesn’t demand—it draws.
That’s been true for me.
Beauty keeps me tethered to faith. Tethered to purpose. Tethered to what matters.
Now, as someone who tries to make beautiful things—especially through composing music—I carry a simple hope:
That the beauty I make might be worthy of the beauty I’ve seen.
Though beauty isn’t proof in the strictest sense,
could the beauty I make not help someone else consider where all the beauty comes from?
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