Article August 14, 1995 Issue

"... the beauty of holiness"

Takashi Oka

On a crowded train near Tokyo, soon after World War II, I overheard a woman describing how she had fled from her burning home after a midnight air raid. The houses in her vicinity had gone up in flames one after another, and she and her neighbors had had to flee with nothing more than a bag or two apiece. When she finally reached the comparative safety of a riverbank, the woman turned back for one last look at her home. Flames lighted up the entire horizon; but as she looked higher, she caught her breath. For there, serene, resplendent, shone the full moon. "It was so beautiful," the woman said. "I almost cried."

Her comment reminded me of something I had heard as a pupil in a Christian Science Sunday School. The Greeks, my teacher said, worshiped the "holiness" of beautiful objects. They created many lovely things, and they also prayed to a pantheon of gods, some having province over the elements, such as wind, rain, and thunder. But the children of Israel worshiped the beauty of holiness. "Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness," David sang (I Chron. 16:29).

During the reign of Jehoshaphat, the Israelites were surrounded by enemies more numerous than they. As they prepared for battle, Jehoshaphat exhorted them, "Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established." He consulted with his people and appointed singers to praise the Lord and to "praise the beauty of holiness" (II Chron. 20:20, 21). As they did so, their enemies began to fight among themselves, and the Israelites were saved.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Moved on, not laid off