June 2, 1949 – April 26, 2026
Father, husband, brother, son, grandfather, friend, and teacher
A great friend of ours, Greg Christiansen, writes wonderful essays on God’s Hand on the Farm and posts them each Saturday on Facebook as well as prints them in books.
Just after Richard was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, this essay was that Saturday message. Richard read this and was so excited that soon he was going to get to see this wonderful Heaven! He quickly added that he would be so sorry to leave his loving family, but he knew we will be joining him.
I want to share this essay with you as a reminder of Richard and hope you will (if you haven’t already) accept Christ as your Savior and, later, join Richard in this most glorious Heaven.
Why All the Beauty?
Photos and essay by Greg Christiansen
When I get up to write these words in the morning hours, I can see the sun rising through my east kitchen window. I never get tired of looking at it. In the evening, my wife and I often sit on the patio watching the sunset in the west. If I am in a tractor in a field going east, I want to hurry up and get to the end so I can turn around, point west, and see the sunset again. I know it will only last a few minutes. Morning and evening the sky lights up like, well, there is no description to describe it. I often take pictures of it, but I just can’t capture the magnificence of what is happening. You know exactly what I’m talking about.
God didn’t have to do that. He could have just made it get dark at the snap of His finger. He could have lit the sky in the morning in a less dramatic fashion. He made the light travel 93 million miles. Then He bent it over the horizon at just the right angle. Why did He do this? Who did He do this for?
As I look out the window and the sun is rising, I see a red-breasted robin searching for a worm in the green grass. Why the red breast? Why not make him all grey or black like other birds? A blue jay lands beside him to take over his spot. Blue, white, and black, all molded together in a pattern only these birds display.
Who doesn’t like to look at the majesty of the mountains or drive through the Flint Hills of Kansas? A wheat field gets my attention when it waves to me as I drive by. Fields of dark green corn in rows are almost sexy.
Who doesn’t stop and look at the colors of the rainbow as it fills the sky from a distant rain? Why are we drawn to a mountain stream, lake, or ocean? We will hike miles to enjoy the beauty of a waterfall. I even enjoy looking down at a muddy river as I cross a bridge.
When I have sheep or goats for sale, the ones that display unusual colors or markings always sell first and for more money. They very well might not be the best ones, but they are the prettiest and people pay for beauty.
What other creatures would pay thousands of dollars for a piece of artwork? Do animals see beauty in their husbands or wives? Who of us doesn’t think a baby is beautiful?
Who did God make all this splendor for? Why paint the world in such incredible colors? Many animals don’t see the colors we do. I’ve never seen a dog or cat enjoy a sunset like you or I do. It seems to me humans are the only species to appreciate beauty. Evolution just cannot account for that characteristic of mankind.
Maybe that is part of what it means in Genesis 1:26 when God said, “Let us make man in our image.”
God must appreciate beauty, because He tells us heaven is the most beautiful place of all. The Bible says we can’t even imagine what it will be like. Take all the sunrises, sunsets, and beautiful landscapes—if you could pile all the beauty of the earth into one big pile and see it all at once—add the beauty of the moon and stars, and add in beautiful music, God tells us, we ain’t seen nothing yet.
If we could take all that and let our imagination multiply it millions of times, we wouldn’t even be close.
1 Corinthians 2:9, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Lord, thank you for the beauty you purposely put into your creation and for giving mankind the ability to see and appreciate it. You could have created a monochrome world or given us only the ability to see in black and white, but you spared no tint, shade, pigment, or hue of color for our enjoyment. You must love us very much to go to so much trouble simply for our enjoyment.
You can read more about Greg and his books here: https://grandviewlivestock.com/
