Beauty

Lately I've been thinking a lot about beauty. The American Heritage Dictionary defines beauty in this way:

The quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness, and originality.

First of all, I want to be beautiful. And don't even get me started on our warped society's perception of beauty. Mainly, I don't want to talk about it because I've bought into it. It's a trap that's hard to escape! I'm convinced I won't be beautiful until I lose 15 pounds and enhance my muscle tone, never mind changing my wardrobe and/or the color of my hair. I don't want to believe those lies... but I do. I rarely go out without makeup on (and when I do, I'm very conscious of it!). I constantly, quietly obsess about my weight. If I'm honest (and I might as well be), I don't really believe my husband when he tells me he thinks I'm lovely. Isn't that sad? I am--we are--to be most pitied for believing these lies. Oh, Father, renew my mind by transforming me with your word.

I want to be surrounded by beauty. I want to see beauty in nature. Oh, how I ::love:: sunsets--I'm never up for sunrises, but I'm sure they're just as breathtaking!--and warm summer days --and fall colors--and spring flowers--and blankets of snow that dust bare trees (even if I hate the cold weather that accompanies it!). It thrills my soul.

I want to see beauty in my home. And perhaps it's this last one that's caused much of my ponderance (not a word, but i'm using it anyway) lately. I desperately want my home to be beautiful. But when you live only slightly above the poverty line, that can be hard! My husband has been wonderfully understanding about the "necessary" purchases I make (cute red Christmas candle for table; artwork for the kitchen; ikea mirrors for the study; lots and lots of photo frames for wedding pictures; you see the trend)... but I am ever-conscious of my heart's inclination toward idolatry. Let's be honest: I all but worship Pottery Barn catalogues!

But if I would suffer to fix my heart on the Almighty, my vision of beauty just might be changed entirely. GOD, in His purest essence, is beautiful. More than that, He is beauty. He defines beauty (American Heritage could stand to adjust its definition, although I think it speaks of His nature as it stands--scroll up and read it again). All of our warped reflections cannot compare to the beauty Jehovah possesses. Yes, there are beautiful things on this earth--beautiful landscape; beautiful people (outwardly, at least!); beautiful relationships; beautiful stuff (I wish I could make that word sound as eloquent as Shakespeare could!). But it is all "a poor reflection as in a mirror" compared to what we will see face to face (1 Corinthians 13.12). It makes my heart glad to think of that day! It will be like the unicorn so excitedly stated in the Chronicles of Narnia (from Chapter 15):

"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia so much is because it sometimes looked a little like this."

There is nothing wrong with my desire for beauty. The wrong-ness, the twistedness, the lie, comes into play when I begin to worship that beauty in and of itself instead of pressing on toward the greater Beauty it reflects. Yes, even Pottery Barn catalogues can motivate us to praise! Let us celebrate beauty in all of life, but let us look foward to the day when we will realize what this life's beauty resembles--indeed, the greatest Beauty of all.

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And, of course, John Piper has a great article on this topic. Long, but worth reading!