For Our Delight

"No less a figure than the allegedly austere Protestant reformer John Calvin (1509-64) recognized that God not only created the world for our necessary use, but also for our robust enjoyment and delight. 'Now if we ponder to what end God created food,' Calvin once mused, 'we shall find that he meant not only to provide for necessity but also for delight and good cheer. Thus the purpose of clothing, apart from necessity, was comeliness (charm) and decency. In grasses, trees, and fruit, apart form their various uses, there is beauty of appearance and pleasantness of odor.'" David Naugle, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives, p. 19