Saturday, February 18, 2023

Beauty Is In the Eye of God

 

Beauty Is In the Eye of God


With today's overemphasis on physical beauty, especially in the wake of Valentine's Day and entertainment awards boasting celebrities trying to outshine one another on the red carpet, it may be time for a reminder that God's view of beauty is far different from ours. I thought it would therefore be fitting to repost the article below. 

When our Pastor’s wife asked me to speak at our ladies’ banquet on the topic of “Beauty,” I must confess that the first thing that popped into my mind was not particularly spiritual. It was an episode of Twilight Zone from the sixties called “Eye of the Beholder,” told from the viewpoint of a young woman who had just undergone extensive plastic surgery in an attempt to look “normal.”

The bandages had not yet been removed, and her time alone in the darkness brought to mind vivid and painful memories of being mocked, bullied and humiliated because of her appearance, and even of having children run away from her in terror once they saw her face.

At long last the surgeon unwraps the bandages, as if he is peeling through the layers of an onion, while explaining that this would have to be their last attempt, for none of her previous ten surgeries had been in the least successful. It would be dangerous and futile to try any further. If this last surgery didn’t work, she would have no choice but to be sent away from mainstream society, to live in a small colony with a few other unfortunates who looked like her.

As the last layer is shed, the doctor shakes his head, turning away with a shudder of revulsion. The nurse cries out in horror before composing herself and handing the patient a mirror. Tears stream down the patient’s cheeks, but to our surprise, the image in the mirror is what we would consider beautiful – symmetrical and well-proportioned features, large eyes, classic nose, full lips, and smooth, flawless complexion.

In shock we see that it is everyone else who is “ugly,” with grotesque, misshapen, asymmetrical faces, pig-like snouts, and scales instead of skin. Truly beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and our definition of beauty is highly influenced by cultural norms. In the sixties, when Twiggy was the star of fashion models, the ideal of beauty was epitomized by the familiar saying, “You can’t be too rich or too thin.”

But across the globe, in Mauritania and other African nations, young girls were (and sadly, in some cases, still are) being force-fed a high-calorie diet to fatten them up before marriage, as obesity was considered a sign of wealth, maturity, high social standing, and female attractiveness.

There are many Biblical references to human physical beauty, but Scripture does not define it. Rachel (Genesis 29:17), King David while he was still a young shepherd (1 Samuel 16:12), Bathsheba whom he later desired (2 Samuel 11:2), his son Absalom (2 Samuel 14:25), Queen Vashti (Esther 1:11), and her successor Queen Esther (Esther 2:7) were all called beautiful, but their looks are not described in detail.

We do know that David was “ruddy,” or rosy-cheeked, and Absalom had long, thick hair and was free of any blemish (2 Samuel 14:25-26). Even gray hair is considered beautiful on the head of an old man (Proverbs 20:29), perhaps because it represents the wisdom of experience, which is more beautiful than gold or jewels.

Proverbs 8: 10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.
11 For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.

Today the passages in Song of Solomon in which the Bridegroom extols the physical virtues of His beloved, and vice versa, seem almost comical to us. Describing teeth as a flock of sheep, hair as a flock of goats, or temples like pieces of pomegranate (4:1-3) is not prime material for a Valentine or love letter of today.

Was Jesus, the holy Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), physically attractive? The prophet Isaiah said that He had no beauty that we should desire Him, yet this was in the context of His excruciating death on the cross, in which His body was bruised, beaten, bloodied and marred beyond recognition. 

Isaiah 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

But in the account of Jesus teaching in the temple as an adolescent, we are told that He continued to grow in stature and in favor with God and with man (Luke 2:52), suggesting that He was physically attractive.  As He was the perfect, sinless Son of God (Matthew 14:33; 16:16) and the physical representation of the Father (John 10:30; 14:7-9), I believe that Jesus was beautiful in His earthly form.

Scripture says that the Lord is beautiful (Psalm 27:4; Hosea 14: 4-8; Zechariah 9: 16-17), and that the branch of the Lord, namely Jesus Christ the Messiah, is beautiful and glorious (Isaiah 4:2). Revelation tells us that He is glorious in power and in majesty, seated on His throne like a precious jewel radiating brilliant rainbows of shining light! (Revelation 4:2-3).

God created the universe, and it was very good (Genesis 1,2). We can only imagine its pristine beauty before it fell under the curse of sin (Genesis 3), yet even now we can see God’s creativity, glory, power and majesty in the beauty of His creation, whether in the colors of a sunrise, the vastness of a starry night, or the microscopic detail of a leaf or even of the cells and atoms themselves (Psalm 19:1).

The adjective “beautiful” is used to describe the priestly garments of Aaron (Exodus 28:2, 40), the house of the Lord (2 Chronicles 3:6; Ezra 7:27; Psalm 96:6; Isaiah 60:13) the nation of Israel (2 Samuel 1:19; Isaiah 52:1), Jerusalem (Ezekiel 16:12) and Mount Zion (Psalm 48:2; 50:2). The name of one of the gates of Solomon’s temple, where Peter healed a lame man, was also Beautiful (Acts 3:2,6,10). These have in common the quality of being set apart, sanctified, or made holy for God’s service (Romans 15:16).

Accordingly, as Scripture confirms, the holiness of the Lord is beautiful, and we must worship Him in the beauty of His holiness (1 Chronicles 16:29, 2 Chronicles 20:21; Psalm 29:2; 96:9). We cannot be holy on our own, for all have sinned and come short of His glory (Romans 3:23). We can receive the holiness of Jesus Christ only once we are saved by trusting in His death, burial and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way (John 14:6) to Heaven.

As we shall see next week, only then will we see beauty as God sees it, and be beautiful in His sight!

© 2019 Laurie Collett


4 comments:

Brenda said...

Hi Laurie, yes beauty is on the inside, not the outside. Sometimes I hear a person's voice and imagine what they look like. Then, when I see them, I am proved totally wrong. God bless.

Frank E. Blasi said...

Dear Laurie,
Talking about physical beauty, I have wondered how Adam and Eve looked immediately after creation and before the Fall.
As the narrative goes, Adam was standing there all alone whilst representative pairs of each animal kind strolled past him as he named each pair. I wonder how Adam had felt? There was nothing in Creation that met his needs.
After Adam was put in a deep sleep and Eve was created out of him, he eventually woke up to see her standing there.
Although the Scripture is rather conservative of the experience, I'm convinced that Adam, seeing his wife for the first time ever, cried out, "WOW! At last! This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh..."
The ravishing, glowing beauty of Eve is beyond imagination, yet there will come a day when we as believers will all look alike, yet retain our individual identities.
Blessings to you and Richard.

Laurie Collett said...

Hi Brenda,
Very true -- a person's voice and appearance often don't match up. That is why so many silent film stars could not transition into talking pictures -- their voices were totally unsuited for movie acting. Praise God that He loves us no matter what we look or sound like. God bless you, Brenda.
Laurie

Laurie Collett said...

Dear Frank,
I agree, Adam must have been overcome with joy and admiration when he first beheld Eve, and vice versa. It will be interesting to see one another in our glorified bodies. Surely we will all be physically beautiful, yet unique. Whether we will resemble an idealized version of how we best looked on earth, or someone totally different is unclear. It does appear that we will recognize one another instantly, even if we never met face-to-face on earth, just as Peter recognized Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration even though they had died long before he could have met them, and there would have been no images of them for him to have seen.
Thanks as always for your thought-provoking comment. May God bless you and Alex,
Laurie