Beauty

And this is my dream, my vision, my life's goal...beauty.

To capture it, to hold it in the palm, to retain and remember it, to share it. Because there is nothing, not one thing, like beauty. And we long for it, thirst for it, risk everything we have (and everything we are) for it.

Because why?

Because beauty is life; because it heals. And ever since the Fall, our crippled fragile hearts have yearned to see beauty whole and unscathed by sin and pain.

But there is still beauty. Even here, in this lost broken world.
Beauty heals and eases the ache. Like when our hearts are shattered on the floor and we turn up the music to drown out the sound of the heart's cries. Because music is beautiful and the beauty calms the raging pulse and clots the blood flowing from a broken heart.

Beauty.

Perhaps this is why some wear so much make-up. We make our face up to be beautiful to hide the pain and the hurt in our eyes and our hearts. As if the outer mask of finery could possibly soak through and permeate our fragile facade. We hide behind crude self-built walls, not believing that we could ever truly be beautiful, whole, okay.

So we pretend. 
Pretend to be okay, at peace, happy. But the plaster mask is holding up our feeble bones, wet noodles limp in the soggy mess of our deep heartache.

If only, if only we would crack the soul-wall and allow beauty's raw enzyme to seep in, to eat away at the scar tissues and lies that bind and render immobile, to teach us to shatter the glass cage of our pride and see the beauty in pure raw vulnerablity.
Because beauty is not tough. It is not invincible. It is not impenetrable. 

Beauty is vulnerable. 

It is tender and gentle and fragile. It will be broken, but it is open to healing. It will be hurt, but it does not stay bitter. It will be rejected, but it is not discouraged.

So where can we find this beauty? For it is surely not found within us.

There is only one source of pure beauty untainted by sin...God's beauty. His glorious, wondrous, majestic Beauty.
Beauty that poured Himself out for us, sacrificed all splendor, laid down all power to give us eyes to see and the opportunity to behold. 


"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in His temple." Psalm 27:4