HAL BRADY: God has put us here to make beauty

On a plane flight to Houston, Texas, some years ago I sat by an employee of Six Flags Over Georgia. He was a young guy in his 30s who was on his way for a job interview with Six Flags Over Texas. He said he and his wife had been praying that they would do God’s will in the situation. Believe it or not, the next day I ran into this same fellow at the airport in Houston, while waiting on my flight back to Atlanta. On greeting him, I asked how the interview had gone. He said, “Fine, but Six Flags Over Texas is not nearly as pretty as Six Flags Over Georgia. I said, “So you’ll have to sacrifice beauty for responsibility.” Immediately, he replied, “No, I’m hoping to make beauty.” Now, that’s the idea! No, that’s God’s idea. All of us are put here to make beauty.

Let me give you a couple of examples of people who made beauty. In a recent medical environment I overheard a nurse say to a patient, “There are no runners-up here!” I thought what a comforting affirmation of that patient. The nurse was saying, you are important, deserve our best and will receive our best. Everybody deserves that kind of treatment. That incident reminded me of another plane flight I took from Dallas to Houston some time back. After getting settled, the stewardess welcomed us and went through some directions and then said, “All our first class passengers will receive a delicious piece of pie for dessert.” Then she smiled and said, “But all of you are our first class passengers.” That had to do not only with first class passengers but first class treatment as well. I thank God for that nurse and stewardess for they were making beauty. For the rest of this article, I want to share a few thoughts about making beauty — something this world so desperately needs.