Beauty and Danger

Every truly awe-inspiring thing in the world has two attributes: it's beautiful and it's dangerous.  As I stood on the edge of Niagara Falls I was amazed.  The waterfall in front of me was so large I could not comprehend what my eyes were seeing.  150,000 gallons of water goes over the falls each second.  That number still makes no sense to me, and yet as I watched the rush go by me I could understand what it meant.  The water hitting the rocks below created a cloud of mist that would soak your clothes.  It was truly, truly beautiful.  And yet, as I stood on one side of a fence gazing at the water going by I understood that if I were on the other side of that fence my life would be over.  Niagara Falls is wondrously beautiful but it is relentlessly dangerous.

When my wife gave birth to our son the miracle was too amazing for me to comprehend.  For nine months cells had multiplied in her womb.  Within weeks of conception the ultrasound clearly revealed there was a person in her belly.  When my son was born it was beautiful.  And yet, weeks prior to his birth we had visited the hospital and arranged our stay.  We were acquainted with the midwives and we intentionally decided to deliver our baby at the hospital which delivers more babies than any other in the entire United States.  We prepared because childbirth is dangerous.  It is dangerous for both the baby and the mother.  And so we wanted to give my wife and our new baby the best opportunity for survival and the least chance of complications.

The vista from the summit of Mount Everest is stunning but the view is enhanced because so few people are willing to risk their lives to see it.

We say love is beautiful.  But anyone who has ventured to love another knows of heartbreak.  Love is dangerous.

Beautiful and dangerous go hand-in-hand.  This reality is true for God too.  God is beautiful and yet He is dangerous.  In C.S. Lewis' masterpiece The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the children ask Mr. Beaver if Aslan the lion, the Christ-figure, is safe.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

God is not safe.  He is dangerous.  But He's good.  And He's beautiful.  Yet few want to talk or think about the danger of God.  In fact, as you read this it may feel like God's danger is a foreign concept to you.  Why is God dangerous?

Because His love for us means He will shape His children into His image through trial and hardship, sickness and even death.  He will make us holy, as He is holy (1 Peter 1:13-16).

Because His holiness requires that sin be punished.  The penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23) and because God is holy that penalty must be administered (Hebrews 9:22ff).  And it was:  on Christ--a substitute available for everyone who has faith.

The danger of God is why God asked Judah rhetorically, "Should you not fear me?" declares the Lord.  "Should you not tremble in my presence?" (Jeremiah 5:22)  And why Isaiah, when he saw the Lord Almighty, "high and exalted, seated on a throne", where the train of God's robe filled the temple (Isaiah 6:1), exclaimed "'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.'" (Isaiah 6:5)

Danger doesn't diminish beauty--it enhances it--because we respect things that are dangerous.