Beauty is unexpected.
Sunday morning I sat in church and listened as the pastor took us through John 8:31.. "If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed." It was a great compelling sermon as he broke down each word.. abide (gotta love NKJV).. in... WORD...
The pastor then looked out at us triumphantly and called the Word nourishment, revelation... and beautiful.
Huh?
I'll be honest, I love the Bible. I think of it as eye-opening, wonderful, true, and inspired, but I've never really thought of it as beautiful.
That one point so stuck in my head that I wandered off for a few minutes, as we all do, and started reflecting. Why don't I ever think of Scripture as 'beautiful'? What do I think of as beautiful?
I think flowing silky fabric is beautiful. I think dark curly hair is beautiful. I think a ninety-year-old couple holding hands on a park bench is beautiful. I think watching beams of pink and orange and purple light shoot across the sky at sunrise is beautiful. I think the way a man gazes at his new bride is beautiful.
Then I realized that what I consider 'beautiful' tends to be external or fleeting. Ooh, that was tough to see. But it was true.. Everything I had just listed mentally had to do with outer beauty, not character. That's the way our culture views beauty, as purely an external presentation using clothes, hair products, and great posture. Enter Barbie, who by those standards alone would win the beauty contest year after year. Perfect hair - which in thirty years will go gray - perfect teeth - which will be replaced by dentures - and impossible measurements in the bust and waist. A finite, temporary example of beauty. Not like the Bible.
What makes the Bible beautiful?
It's true. It knows the human heart as both exceedingly passionate and hopelessly wicked, and still through Jesus God offers us grace.
It's lyrical. I mean, "You are clothed with honor and majesty.. Who cover Youself with light as with a garment.. who stretch out the heavens like a curtain... He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters.." Psalm 104. That's breathtaking!
It is unfailing. Isaiah 40:8, "The grass withers, and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever." Bleach-white teeth and curly hair only go so far in this life. Our employment fails. Our families fail. Our bodies fail. But the Word cannot fail. God is incapable of failure, and because of that is utterly beautiful.
Toward this I strive, seeking the unfailing beauty that can only come from knowing and living God's Word rather than the failing beauty of Barbie, whose proportions make her the most likely candidate to fall over and then break in half because her size 3 foot slipped out of her size 3 high heel in its daily battle to support her 39 inch bust. Oy.
Biblical beauty is puzzling to the world, because at first glance it may not be noticeable. It's the beauty of "a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." It's the beauty of faithfulness in marriage. It's a young child who wants to serve God. It's a man standing up to a giant. It's a King washing the feet of his followers. And, this Easter weekend, it's an empty tomb and a risen Savior.
Take that, Barbie.
- Grace Marita
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