Opposite a coffee shop we use to meet friends there’s a dry-cleaners. It stands in a row of boxed, nondescript shops on the ground floor of a glassed office building. Occasionally we drop coats or duvets into that cleaners but we’re usually dashing in and out without paying too much attention to the sterile surroundings.

The other day, however, I’d dropped off some clothes and was turning to leave when a large poster caught my attention. Standing over a metre tall, a copy of Gustav Klimt’s, Lady in Gold, confronted me, hanging on the wall. Open-mouthed, I stared at the stylised picture of the wealthy Jewish Viennese lady, Adele Bloch-Bauer. Its rich mosaic depiction of her in oils and silver and gold leaf was positively incongruous in that over air-conditioned environment of solvents and washing machines.

Beauty seems to exist in the most unexpected places. Although, I did wonder what defines beauty. Of course, our perceptions are shaped by personal taste and our background. But beauty must be more than a stunning painting or a magnificent building. And it is certainly more than the media’s shrunken world of cat walks, shopping malls and glossy magazines.

True beauty exists naturally without any additions, in an elegant rose or the ferocious fire of the sun spilling onto the ocean. It is seen on the surface and, as I take a longer look, beneath the surface; in the quiet joy behind a battered face or the unbridled laughter of a child with Down syndrome. Beauty is everywhere.

It speaks of life. Of life that is there but which cannot be controlled. We see it, feel it, touch it. Unspeaking, it does not impose itself on us. Neither does it explain or change life’s circumstances. Yet it is present and, as we allow it, it connects to something remote in the depths of our soul, speaking to every detail of our lives.

We cannot explain it, we can only perceive it. Beauty, implicit in the very fabric of creation, of this world, witnesses to the intrinsic goodness of God that’s always been there. Pressing itself to the edges of our comprehension, it is natural to the way God works in our world, in our lives. Not imposing himself on us but, stopping us in our tracks, He catches our eye, connects with our soul, and draws us in, bringing form to the formless, light to our darkness and peace to our hearts.