Sabbath Devotional :: Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise

*“The Ghent Altarpiece”* by Jan van Eyck and Hubert van Eyck, 1432

For Zion must increase in beauty, and in holiness; her borders must be enlarged; her stakes must be strengthened; yea, verily I say unto you, Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments. (Doctrine and Covenants 82:14)

Back when I was formally studying things, I studied art history. This meant that for many years of my life (and for many years thereafter) I spent hours of every week looking at truly beautiful objects. The period and place of my focus meant that many of those beautiful things had originally been created as objects of devotion.

As a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who grew up in Utah, I had come to this study with a little bit of skepticism and even distaste. In my mind those devotional objects represented some false ideas about God, how we access grace, and what kind of relationship we should have with the Savior. Sometimes they glorified dying for God rather than just living in his service. And let’s be honest, to my young Utah trained eye, often they just looked . . . weird.

Almost 200 years ago the church was first organized by a group of people mostly descended from New England Puritans. The Restoration marked a huge departure from many of the traditional tenets of Christianity and also made several bold and revolutionary doctrinal claims. But, they didn’t depart so much from their culture, and as they traveled west searching for a place to settle and worship freely, Puritanism came with them. Two hundred years later we haven’t quite shaken that off.

I believe the doctrinal claims of the Restoration, and I am grateful that my life gave me the opportunity to embrace them and live a life scaffolded by personal and unfettered access to Christ’s Atonement. The Restoration also called us to Zion, and I also believe that Zion is going to be beautiful! Sadly, I truly don’t think that our current material culture (which is driven so much by competitive capitalism) is going to get us there. Between the Puritans and the capitalists we have probably picked up some very bad notions about what it means to create Zion beauty.

So what can we all do about that? Because I can tell you that all my study of devotional objects has taught me that they really do impact us meaningfully. It is possible to create beautiful and glorious things that don’t distract us from God but bring us closer to Him. Zion beauty takes us out of this world rather than dragging us more deeply into it. That kind of beauty inspires us to be good, not greedy. When we experience something truly beautiful? We don’t feel envious, we feel enlivened.

A while ago a little voice in my heart told me that one of the antidotes to the weariness that advocacy work brings was going to be adding some Zion beauty back into my life. So I have been seeking it out. And that is why you see the Ghent Altarpiece at the top of this post. This had always been high on my bucket list, and a few weeks ago I finally was able to see it in person.

To you it might honestly look . . . weird. But for me it was a revelation. That picture doesn’t begin to do it justice, and standing in front of it in a quiet chapel was a profound spiritual experience. The world slowed down and fell away, and everything inside me became quiet. I felt myself standing firmly in my place in the arc of generations of believers. I felt deeply the way that Christ’s sacrifice paid for our sins. Questions were able to come to the front of my mind that I am still wrestling with weeks later. Good questions about how I can connect better with the Atonement, what I need to do to ensure that a legacy of belief continues in the world, and always more wonderings about how to better build Zion. It was such a good thing to be with all that beauty.

Zion can be a refuge from the ugliness in the world in many different ways. Beauty can be a balm for our troubled souls and can connect us to God when we feel other pathways are clouded. As part of your sabbath, I’d encourage you to find something lovely that pulls you toward Heaven and calms your troubled heart. (Share it with us here so we can all add to the measure of beauty together!) “Zion must increase in beauty, and in holiness.” Let’s work to make it so.