Beauty

This week, I came across a post that had been shared on Facebook by many of my friends. As I read the short paragraph, my heart froze. I stared at the last sentence, trying to unread it, trying to believe that sentence wasn't there - that many, many people, especially women, hadn't read it and believed it to be true. The post compared Kylie Jenner, daughter of the now Caitlyn Jenner, to Malala Yousafzai, the young woman who recently won the Noble Peace Prize for starting a school for Syrian refugees and who took a bullet in the face from the Taliban as a result of the corruption in her country. As you may have already guessed, the writer of the post was disgusted by Kylie and full of admiration for Malala. The last sentence of the post reads as follows:

"Last thing to note, Malala is infinitely more beautiful!"

No. Please, no. Do not believe this. This is a lie.

How can we walk around claiming every girl possesses beauty, yet so easily degrade another woman's image? What makes us believe we can label one woman as beautiful, yet strip another's beauty right from under her feet? Are we so special as to be the definers of beauty? Who defines beauty, anyway? What is considered beautiful?

The most beautiful moment in all of history was when God revealed His plan to save His beloved yet damned creation by the blood of His perfect Son. This is beauty, that Jesus Christ bled on a cross, all to give His people a home in Heaven with Him. This is beauty, that Jesus Christ wore a crown of thorns {Matthew 27:29}, yet chooses to crown His people with steadfast love and mercy {Psalm 103:4}. This is beauty, that Jesus Christ was stripped of His clothes and mocked {Matthew 27:28-31}, yet chooses to clothe His own with the garments of salvation and the robes of righteousness {Isaiah 61:10}. This is beauty, that Jesus Christ experienced true and divine abandonment from His Heavenly Father in order to bear the full weight of the Father's wrath {Matthew 27:46}, yet promises that He will be with His children always, to the end of the age {Matthew 28:20}.

I have no beauty apart from Him. You have no beauty apart from Him.

Yes, God created each and every one of us on this earth {Colossians 1:16}. He knit you together in your mother's womb {Psalm 139:13}. You are fearfully and wonderfully made {Psalm 139:14}. He calls His creation "very good" {Genesis 1:31}. Do not underestimate that truth! His work is GOOD. Yes, you, with the pimples that never seem to go away. Yes, you, with the extra inches around your waist that you fight so hard to hide. Yes, you, with the scrawny legs or the flat chest or the broad shoulders or the frizzy hair - you are beautiful. I am sitting here, also attempting to fight off the lies that tell me my recent body changes are ugly and undesirable. We all struggle with this at one time or another! Yet while I stress and focus on outward beauty, I am also being reminded this is not the beauty the Lord refers to again and again in His word {1 Peter 3:3-4}.

The beauty that was referred to in the post about Kylie Jenner and Malala Yousafzai was inward beauty. The writer of the post (and I'm sure much of the world) seems to believe that inward beauty is gained by doing good deeds, or by being brave in the face of adversity. I'm NOT saying that bravery and doing good AREN'T beautiful acts. I AM saying that we CANNOT EARN beauty. We cannot earn anything {Ephesians 2:8}.

So, then, what makes us beautiful on the inside?

Only by the transformation of our souls by the Lord are we beautiful {Romans 12:2}. It is not enough to try to do good, because we will fail. We all fall short {Romans 3:23}. We are all born into sin {Job 5:7}. We are all tainted, ugly, stained and damned, but by the beauty and grace with which He accomplished our salvation, we can be deemed a beautiful and new creation {2 Corinthians 5:17}. 

It doesn't just end there. If we embark on our journey with the Lord, He sifts through and filters out the parts of us that are like this world. This process, called sanctification, is different for everyone, but it can be extremely painful to have our eyes opened to the dirty and dark parts of us (speaking from experience). Revelation of our sin and ugliness, however, is for our good {1 Peter 1:7, Ephesians 1:17} so that we can be prepared to enter into the glory of the Lord in Heaven {Romans 6:22}. As the bad in us is revealed, He fights for us to have beauty through Him. He places specific callings on our hearts that develop differently in each of us to go out into this world and make disciples of Him.

True beauty is found in being one of the Lord's own children. Through the process of sanctification, the Lord makes us more like Him. And He, my friends, is the most beautiful of all.

"Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth" {Psalm 50:2}.