Mere Reflections

As someone who is particularly fond of art (and God, for that matter), I find it wonderful to take a walk through nature. Even when it’s just kind of a small wooded area behind my apartment. Today’s walk brought to mind something I haven’t quite considered before: God is a fantastic artist. He uses all the rules of good design and color theory. And then some. Not only that, but God’s art in nature is always changing, yet somehow still remains beautiful. I don’t know about you, but if I tried to make art that was always slowly changing and was never the same twice, I would fail miserably. I just want to reflect on a few of the amazing things God does in nature all the time:

Most Importantly, God Knows That Form Without Function Is Bad Design:
All of these examples are interesting in that the beauty of them is only because they have a function.

God Uses the Complementary Color Scheme:
Sunsets. Sunrises. They are both undisputedly wonderful. And why is that? Well, you see, the sky is blue because of light hitting the particles in the air. (I promise not to be too science-y) And when the sun is at the horizon, the light must pass through much more atmosphere than at noon, so the longer wavelengths of light (blue’s complement: orange) pass through and show up beautifully against the blue sky. Complementary colors are the bomb.

God Knows About Accent Colors:
So, most plants are green, right? Right. Well, when plants want to get bees to pollinate them so they can make fruit so that they can spread their seeds around so that there can be more of themselves in the future, they make sure the bees can see them by putting out flecks of color that aren’t green. Thus, accent colors.

God Uses the Supplementary Color Scheme:
Even though when the leaves change colors in fall it is because they are dying, it’s still beautiful! There are very few things I like seeing more than a tree that has the full gradient of green fading to yellow fading to orange fading to that deep rusty red color. Also, I love seeing the similarly colored plants in a wild field, one that never gets mowed or it too far from anywhere to be mowed, when there are patches of light yellow grass, dark green grass, and reddish grass intermixing.

God Also Uses the Monochromatic Color Scheme:
I’ve barely ever seen any, but Birch forests are wonderfully beautiful in my opinion. Birches are those tall spindly trees with the black and white bark. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go google “birch forest” right now. A monochromatic color scheme is when an artist uses black and white and one other color, and birch forests are a beautiful example, wether the other color is green in the spring and summer, or orange in the winter, it’s always breathtaking.

Of course, it would be ridiculous to say that God is the one using our rules of design. It makes much more sense to say that our rules of design stem from the pleasing things we see all around us that God has created. (and isn’t it just grand that God didn’t make us utilitarian creatures? That he made us so that even the necessary things in life have beauty and pleasure in them? It really is awe-inspiring.