beauty

Beauty.

Beauty so often refers to appearance, especially to someone's appearance or of something in nature.  We hardly ever associate beauty with the unseen.  The bible talks about beauty in many ways.  It describes many of the women, including Sara (Genesis 12:11) and Queen Esther (Esther 1:11), and describes the Lord (Psalms 27:4).  Beauty can be enthralling (Psalms 45:11), tempting (Proverbs 6:25), fleeting (Proverbs 31:30), perfected (Ezekiel 16:14), degraded (Ezekiel 16:25), corrupting (Ezekiel 28:17), and majestic (Ezekiel 31:7).  Beauty causes very strong emotions.  It is one of the most powerful and shocking ways that we can get to know God and what He is like.  But God is physically unseen, so how do we know what God's beauty is like, especially if we only think about beauty as an outward characteristic?

1 Peter 3:4 urges women to not focus on fleeting outward beauty, but the "unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit."  How often do we think of beauty in this way?  Do we value this unseen beauty as much as God does, as being "of great worth in God's sight?"   Wouldn't it be amazing to see beauty the way that God does?  How would that change us?

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