Week 9: The Source of All Beauty

There's more to following God than goodness and truth.

by Sam O'Neal

I can't believe we're in week 9 already of our summer Dot Com(unity) session! That means the study is almost over. And that means the summer is almost over!!! (If you live in a cold-weather town, like me, you understand my current angst.)

Oh well. We've had some really interesting study topics this summer, and another one has popped up this week: beauty. Here's a little humor to start things off—maybe even an icebreaking video for your group session?

Obviously, that's not the kind of "beauty" we're talking about this week. :)

Teaching Points
This week's study material starts off with a great discussion question: Is beauty something that is absolute, or is it "in the eye of the beholder," as the saying goes? Even if you use some kind of activity or icebreaker, I think this is a great question to transition into the teaching/discussion time.

I also think that Teaching Point 2 could be a neat place to camp for several groups. When we think of the attributes of God, several words usually come to mind: Love, Wrath, All-knowing, Jealous, Patient, and so on. But I don't think it's common to think of God as "beautiful."

Would you agree? Either way it opens the door for a fascinating discussion on the nature of God and his role in creating the Earth, and people, in beautiful ways. Plus, it allows us to think about our appreciation of beauty. Is it worth our time to explore beautiful things instead of doing things that might be more "fruiful" to the Kingdom of God?

Teachable Moments
Like last week, I'm having a tough time identifying which of the teaching areas from the material have the best potential for impact. It really depends on your group members, I suppose.

So what do you think? Which of the teaching points below makes you most excited? Which do you think will be most exciting to your group?

1. God's creation is beautiful and meant for our enjoyment.
2. The splendor of creation is a reflection of its Creator, for God is beautiful.
3. Because we are created in the image of God, we share many of his attributes, including creativity.
4. In the Incarnation, God demonstrated that he had neither given up on the world of matter, nor on human beings, despite their sinfulness.