I'd like to float a related question with which I've had much more difficult time: why does a loving and all-powerful Creator allow aesthetic diversity to exist when desire for what is considered "beautiful" leads to so many kinds of evil?

Material beauty sits atop the destabilizing preconditions of diversity and scarcity. My primary problem with "beauty" is that the act of recognizing it in a person, a human creation, or a piece of Nature assumes other, abundant samplings of these same things that somehow miss the high benchmark provided by the distinguishing and prejudicial eye. From the very start, the act of identifying beauty involves simultaneous recognition of the not beautiful, a socially fragmenting distinction that can lead to envy and argument, to isolation or conflict.

Take one of the most popular vehicles for beauty--the female body. It should go without saying that the narrow standards of physical beauty pushed by the media and swallowed whole by both sexes wreak havoc on many a mind. Women young and old are encouraged to compare themselves to a far off ideal, prompting numbers of self-conscious teens and aging wives to question their own, comparative charms and--sometimes--their very worth as relational beings. Other women don't make it into the aesthetic arena in the first place, disqualified by an unstated standard that questions the very legitimacy of those with noticeable mobility impairments, individuals dealing with skin conditions, and people whose color and current culture place them in a racial minority. (See Cornwell West's classic Race Matters (1994) for a compelling take on the battles faced by some African-American females in white America.)

One could argue that the lives of men taken in by such standards are equally (if less painfully) complicated, as the desire to possess female beauty can also lead to frustration, bitterness, and conflict. We may be less likely to wage large-scale wars over beautiful women than Homer's Greeks, but sexual desire continues to precipitate all kinds of physical and psychological quarrels from adolescence onward. And let's not forget the less visible battles waged by those who accept Christ's claim that lust from afar carries the same spiritual repercussions as a consummated affair. This internal struggle is the more difficult today because of a media barrage which conditions men to desire most that which lies out of reach--the kind of female shape and skin which, simple statistics tell us, we are unlikely to find in those around us. When a guy in search of lasting intimacy does happen upon a woman whose features approach his individually tailored ideal, a new challenge presents itself--that of peering past the distracting surface that vies with the woman's soul for his attention. Many a married or otherwise committed man faces the daily, silent challenge of replacing in his mind those images fed him by the media with the more tangible and dynamic vision of beauty to which he has wed himself.

Related but more visible struggles emerge when we look at human history and recall other vessels for beauty, the desire for which has given rise to the evils of hatred, slavery, and warfare. Consider the centuries of conflict fought over beautiful and fecund tracts of land; the millions of bleeding, disenfranchised backs which have helped raise extravagant temples to self and our God (many beautiful examples of which were witnessed by Tracey and me during our Italian tour last month); and those gems of the earth whose current illegal distribution has led to the corruption of individuals young and old.

This latter situation provides raw material for Edward Zwick's Blood Diamond (2006), a tale about a few corrupt businessman and mercenaries who have perfected the art of self-interest. The film's most heart-rending tragedy, of course, concerns not the men who chose this life, but the boys forcibly removed from their families who find guns in their hands and the seductive whisper of riches in their ears. The film's indictment of the western greed and thoughtless purchasing practices which have caused this militarizing of African youth is explicit: we obviously need to think twice about the means by which available goods come into our country, and should consider avoiding altogether diamonds and other products likely to have been purchased with the blood and sweat of innocents. We can't know everything about merchandise on the shelves, perhaps, but we can definitely know more.

Zwick's work concerns more than the diamond trade, however; it implicitly interrogates that insatiable human desire for beauty which sets the story's central drama in motion. In the world of the film--like that in which we all live--everyone wants what will make them appear more beautiful. Whether we wear, drive, live in, marry, sleep with, or ingest beauty, the operating assumption remains the same: proximity to or possession of the beautiful must result in greater happiness.

At first glance, this sounds a bit Biblical. St. Paul instructs us to think about things that are not only "noble" and "right" but "lovely" and "excellent" (Philippians 4:8), and Christ speaks metaphorically of giving over all we have to claim a hidden treasure or fine pearl--rare and valuable objects which he likens to the "kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 13:44-46).

Unfortunately, many people decide that beautiful ends justify any and all means. Thus, the current state of our fallen world . . .

Which brings us back to the question of why a loving God would create a world filled with so much conflict-creating, lust-provoking, greed-inspiring aesthetic variety. Why allow for one person, place, or thing to be perceived by a majority as more beautiful than another person, place, or thing? Why not craft a more uniform, homogenous creation?

For me, the answer boils down to the following two, strongly held claims:

1. when we recognize something as beautiful, there is a precious--if brief--moment before the desire for possession can raise its head during which we are simply in AWE. During this moment, our minds lie prostrate before the throne of beauty, before the spectacle of something above and beyond us. This submissive posture reminds us of our own imperfections and provides a glimpse of the perfection that lies behind the veil--of a creation unsullied by human sin, and a Creator who will one day unite his people with Himself.

2. when we imitate the divine imagination and partake in the act of creating something beautiful--be it a piece of art, a newborn baby, or an ephemeral smile--we remind others and ourselves that the promise of beauty does not lie too far out of reach, even if it will only ever be imperfectly grasped this side of Paradise.