Light as Glory

It's interesting how light can make even ugly things look beautiful.

Perhaps this is a helpful way to understand how the glory of god plays over and bathes even things that are ugly or evil in themselves.

So much of beauty, visual beauty, is because of light and how it plays over things. And it that makes sense if you see light as the glory of God. All light is light from his glory. The world is lit with it. We see by it and through it.

So when light shines on some object, it not only makes that object visible, but beautifies that object or person. (Jonathan Edwards called the Holy Spirit the beautifier) It is beautiful only because it is reflecting a light that is the glory of god.

One ugly thing, and perhaps the ugliest thing in history is the cross of Christ.
But in the light of God's glory, it is the most beautiful thing in history.

Perhaps this is why photographers so often delight in taking pictures of ugly things bathed in beautiful light.