RANDOM THOUGHTS ON BEAUTY

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON BEAUTY

I’ve observed an unsettling tendency on social media platforms, an overemphasis on physical beauty. This concerns me, especially when I consider the fact that ALL of us will change (possibly gradually but definitely radically) in the course of time and circumstance. This raises a mission critical question: ‘What is beauty?’ Is it solely determined by the contours of one’s frame or the characteristics of one’s face? I think not.

True beauty is an inexplicable spiritual phenomenon.  It has little to do with exteriors; it’s all about inside reality.  It emerges from truth, integrity, compassion and wisdom in our relationships with God and man.  I love President Abraham Lincoln’s comedic commentary on beauty: “The Lord prefers common-looking people.  That is the reason He made so many of them.”   Good one, Mr. Lincoln!

Never become obsessed with outward appearances.  Charles William Eliot, a former president of Harvard, had a birthmark on his face that bothered him to no end.  As a young man, he was told that surgeons could do nothing to remove it.  But his wise and loving mother offered this sage advice: “My son, it is not possible for you to get rid of that hardship – but it is possible for you, with God's help, to grow a mind and soul so big that people will forget to look at your face.”  Wow! 

We must also be mindful that standards of beauty differ greatly from person to person and culture to culture.  Missionaries have discovered that in some nations female beauty is synonymous with a buxom anatomy.  In “Fan the Flame,” J. Stowell tells of a young missionary whose small, slender wife was mocked by the indigenous people who insisted that this was a terrible reflection on him since he was obviously not providing well enough for his family.  One villager cited the local folk wisdom, i.e. “If your wife is on a camel and the camel cannot stand up, your wife is truly beautiful!”

One of my favorite poets, John Keats, penned an important truth in his “Ode to a Grecian Urn.”  Keats opined, “TRUTH is beauty; beauty is TRUTH.  That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”  Amen!

Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed, and please (above all else) MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY TO MEET OUR SOON COMING KING. Maranatha!