What do you see when you look at the seashell? Be careful how you answer. The first person to caution us on commenting on what you see is Margaret Wolfe Hungerford. She used the phrase, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” (For trivia buffs, it was used in her book, Molly Bawn, written in 1878).
As graphic designers, are we part of the crowd that shapes or defines what is viewed as beautiful?
Good golly, I hope not.
Take another look at that seashell. How would you use to describe it besides the obvious such as beige, holey, or maybe even ugly?
Do you see the texture? What about its age? Is it weathered? How about seeing it as a habitat?
Now think again about how things/people in our every day world could be viewed if we weren’t so quick to label? Look beyond the obvious . . . it can broaden your whole perspective!
Thankfully, our Creator, God, doesn’t just look at our obvious outsides! While others may look at us and label us with unflattering adjectives, God looks at our insides because He can. He’s the One who created us. We are fearfully and wonderfully made (see Psalm 139:13-16). We are the apple of His eye. (Deuteronomy 32:10).
Now, about that shell. It came from St. Joe Beach. When I picked it up to save, my family asked me why I was keeping such an ugly shell. “I don’t see the ugly,” I said. “I see a really interesting texture, a shell that’s been thoroughly weathered and still around.”
I’ve kept that shell as a reminder. A reminder to look past the obvious, to not be so quick to label someone or something. I’m sure I fail often and miss opportunities to see with new perspectives.
Fortunately God doesn’t fail . . . with Him “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”