Beauty

Beauty 

(May 1/2012)

I found myself in a short, but very sweet, discussion about beauty this past weekend with a close friend of mine. We were out at Golden Ears park standing on the shore of Allouette Lake and we simply found ourselves saying how beautiful it was. Standing beside a mountain lake with big mountains towering over us with nothing around but thick forest. It was “beautiful”. Then my friend acquired a rather aggressive tone, as he often does, and spoke of his frustration when it came to defining beauty. “What is beauty Keegs?” he asks. A short two minute conversation in sues, which is pretty short for us, and I end up at a statement that we seemed to agree on.

“Beauty can only be defined in terms of God.”

“Beauty is in knowing what someone thinks about God and how they understand themselves as a result of their thoughts of God.”

My friend is right to be frustrated by how our culture defines beauty. We have it all wrong and that is because our culture does not acknowledge God as beauty. We define beauty by aesthetics, which can be part of beauty, but the more important piece to understand is how that beauty came to be. Beauty is not looking the way of the latest trend or having the perfect body; whatever that looks like. Beauty is in knowing who you are and what defines you; or it. Standing at the shores of Allouette lake was beautiful because it is created by the definer of beauty; God. And it shares itself openly with the rest of creation with a boldness that comes from understanding its created purpose. I believe a similar statement can be made for people.

Of course people can be outwardly nice to look at; attractive, but I don’t think that is beauty. That is simply what we have been conditioned to believe beauty to be. Beauty as defined by scripture can be seen when Jesus speaks to the women at the well. She has been unfaithful to her husband countless times, but as Jesus reveals himself to her she gains an understanding of who she really is. She can live in love and an understanding that she is not defined by what she looks like or the things that she has done in the past, but rather, she is defined by a knowledge of God and who she is as a result of that. You are created perfect in the sight of God to do a divine work and when you embrace that your beauty is unlike anything our world knows how to define - Beauty transcends culture and society. We see that in the child with disability who loves unconditionally because they know Jesus has a huge plan for them. It is evident in the man who has everything yet counts it all as lost. And it is evident in the women who dresses conservatively because she understands that her beauty is not simply what she looks like. 

May we find our beauty in Christ. You have been wonderfully and fearfully made and when you come to an understanding of that through a relationship with your creator that is when your beauty begins to shine through. That is when beauty transcends.

Beauty is all around us in everything that God has made. Remember that God made you. When you live a life understanding that you are perfectly made that is when people take notice and they take notice long term instead of just a fleeting glance. True beauty makes people stop and be in awe; just like I was when standing at Allouette lake. True beauty makes people question, makes them humble, makes them pursue truth. I pray that my beauty is defined by my creator and may that shine through me to impact everyone around me.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

Psalm 139:14

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Romans 12:1-2

For His Kingdom.