There are so many beautiful places and things in this world. Until a few years ago, I'd never flown commercial. But a friend and I flew from Peoria, to Dallas, over to LAX for a retreat. I'd brought books to read, but I couldn't stop looking out the window. I'm glad I don't fly much, I'd hate to think I'd ever grow tired of such a spectacular view! The flight was like a scenic vacation in itself. Hey, don't laugh, I'm easy to please!
But we're drawn to beauty and mesmerized by its charm. It's like Solomon says, "The eye never has enough seeing nor the ear enough hearing." The world is a captivating place.
Now a word that conveys the beauty of God is "glory." We're told in Scripture that "the heavens and earth declare the glory/beauty of God." Beauty isn't any more feminine than it is masculine. Beauty is divine. God is beautiful, and God has made all things beautiful. God has created not just the world, but also human beings, to reflect his glory and beauty!
Now every Spring, the rain falls and the earth is awakened. We see it every year, especially at Mother's Day. Awe-inspiring beauty emerges from the once dusty and dry ground. Trees and vegetation that lay dormant for months suddenly spring to life with a kaleidoscopic display of color. The glory of God is put on full display in every blade of grass and flower that blooms.
But the Spring is also a demonstration of God's power to awaken beauty. If God can awaken the beauty of Creation, how much more the beauty of His most special creation--people like you and me--and his people the Church? That's what we're going to begin talking about in this series. How God awakens beauty in all of us.
Few would say that human nature is beautiful, or that God is glorified by who we've become as human beings! At Barnes and Noble, there is a book called the "People of Walmart" book, that pokes fun at the unflattering side of humanity. Newspapers, Websites, and 24 Hour Cable News stations broadcast the shameful happenings of human nature. We all know that how ugly, and rather tragic, human nature can be. But if God can awaken the beauty of Creation can he not also awaken the beauty of His people? Is anything too impossible for God, by his Holy Spirit?
Since it's Mother's Day, let's take a poll. How many of you have beautiful mothers? Yea, for those here with their mother it's going to be a long day if you don't raise your hand! So what "is" or even "was" beautiful about your mother?
Lately DOVE has been conducting a #ChooseBeautiful campaign for women. In major cities all around the world... like Shanghai, San Francisco, London... DOVE set up labeled entrances. Over one entrance they posted the word AVERAGE in bold letters. Over a second entrance they posted the word BEAUTIFUL. Then they hid a camera and filmed the results. http://time.com/3773858/dove-choose-beautiful-average-door/
How many women do you suppose chose the entrance marked BEAUTIFUL? How many women chose AVERAGE? Unfortunately, and maybe unsurprisingly, most women chose to slink by unnoticed under the "AVERAGE" sign rather than acknowledge any beauty. Some women avoided both entrances all together! A few mothers shoved their daughters through the beautiful entrance. If we did this at Lakeside, which entrance would you have chosen?
We have such conflicting ideas and standards of beauty. In October 2012, Cameron Russel told a TEDx Conference audience that "Look's aren't everything." This would have come off as cliché, except Russell is a successful fashion model. She's walked runways for Victoria's Secret and appeared on the covers of fashion magazines.
During her talk she covered her revealing, tight-fitting black dress with a wraparound skirt. Then she exchanged her 8 inch heels for plain shoes, and pulled a turtleneck sweater over her head. In seconds she was able to totally transform what everyone thought about her.
With photos, she illustrated how young women are seductively posed during photoshoots, and how photos are "constructions" carefully orchestrated "by a group of professionals, by hairstylists and makeup artists and photographers and stylists and all of their assistants and preproduction and postproduction." "They build this," she explained, "That's not me."
So who is she? Russell explains: "The real way that I became a model is I won a genetic lottery, and I'm the recipient of a legacy, and maybe you're wondering what is the legacy. Well, for the past few centuries we have defined beauty not just as health and youth and symmetry that we're biologically programmed to admire, but also as tall, slender figures, and femininity, and white skin. And this is a legacy that was built for me, and it's a legacy that I've been cashing in on." (Source: Talk Like Ted, pp. 17-18).
Her lyrics are a bit crass, but I think this is why Meghan Trainor is so popular--in addition to the fact she is crazy gifted as song writer and vocalist. In her song, "Its All About the Bass" she sings, "its pretty clear I'm no size 2... I see the magazines working that photoshop... Make it stop... I won't be no stick figure silicone Barbie doll. Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top."
So just what is beauty? There's an old expression that says, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." That's a great saying. But the deeper question we have to ask ourselves is, "Who is our beholder?" If you're beholder consists of fashion magazines, and pop culture, then you'd better have won the genetic lottery and know someone really good at Photoshop! If you're beholder is your family, they're keying into the kind of true beauty that is infinitely more substantive than anything Victoria Secret, or some fashion magazine would ever key into!
Who is our beholder? Ultimately, God is our beholder. We exist first and foremost for his praise/glory/enjoyment/pleasure. God himself is the standard and judge of what is beautiful. If God held a beauty pageant and was judge, just what kind of beauty would matter? Beauty of the flesh, that only goes skin deep, that is wholly based on the genetic lottery? Beauty that is manufactured superficially, in studios, or with high-end software, or fashion? Or the kind of beauty that endures into eternal life, that is of God, and reflects the beauty of our Creator?
See you can win the "genetic lottery" yet lack the kind of beauty that ultimately matters. True beauty isn't about what you start with, it's what you finish with. Beauty is what emerges over time in our lives, not genetic lottery we start off life with. Many beautiful things become ugly. Many ugly things become beautiful. What kind of beautiful are you becoming?
In the Bible there is the kind of beauty that consists of braided hair, gold, pearls, and expensive clothes. There is the kind of beauty that is fleeting, that never lasts, that fades away with time. And there is the kind of beauty that consists of good deeds, modesty, decency, propriety, and worship. For men, there is the kind of beauty that consists of rigorous physical training [unless your buying the "Dad Bod" hype!] But then there is beauty that consists of godliness. What kind of beauty will you possess on the last day? One kind will matter, the other kinds will not.
Not only does God define true beauty... but it's God who awakens true beauty. In Ephesians 5, the Church is described as the bride of Christ... a bride who Christ loves, and gave himself up for... a bride he makes "holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word." A bride he presents "to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." You might say these verses are describing a kind of divine makeover! Where God does the cleansing, washing, and perfecting by his Holy Word.
When I asked "Who has a beautiful mother" you thought of true beauty. You probably thought of your mom's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. You can take the prettiest model, with the perfect height, symmetry, genetics but if she lacks the fruit of the Spirit her physical beauty matters nothing. But you can take an average person, add the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and they become stunning!
In 1 Peter 3, Peter tells wives, if you really want to win your husbands over, it will be when they see the "purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful."
(I don't think Bible prohibits these things... I just think it puts them in perspective.)
I want to come back to this question, "Who is your Beholder?" This is really the crux of the matter. Who do you most want to be beautiful for?
A word that describes what often happens is we as God's people become like a "wayward bride." In the Old Testament, Israel became like a wayward bride. In the New Testament, the Church and individual believers, are also likened to a bride.
A wayward bride is a bride who despite all God's done, sets her affection on someone or something other than Christ. Instead of orienting her life around Christ, and His Word, she's orients her life around the world, and what the world says. Instead of coming to Christ to be cleaned, washed, and made holy... she's walks through the world, becoming stained and corrupted by all who oppose God.
In Ezekiel 16:1-19 we find a striking portrait of God taking Israel as his bride, and making her beautiful... [Read Ezekiel 16:1-14]
But after all God has done, Israel loses her way. She becomes a "wayward" bride. Instead of giving herself to God, she gives herself away to others. [Read Ezekiel 16:15-19]. **I have to stop reading, because of how Ezekiel 16 so graphically depicts the extent of Israel's sins. Let me just say, Israel became one ugly bride, through her sin. The further she rebelled, the more "bridezilla" she became!
And then this. What comes of Israel? What comes of God's relationship with his Bridezilla? Does God give up on Israel? No. In Ezekiel 16:60-63 God promises, "I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. . . you'll remember your ways, and be ashamed. . . [yet] I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. . . I will make atonement for you for all you have done..."
God doesn't accept us "because we are beautiful" that's what the world does. God accepts us "to make us beautiful". Everything God promised Israel became the reality in Christ. In Christ, God loves his Bride and gives himself up for her. Our sins are not too much even for God. Christ takes us, and makes us beautiful. He makes his church "holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word." And he presents her "to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."
No matter how stained and corrupted we become, no matter how warped/ugly or depraved our human nature. . .Not only does God desire us to be his bride, he offers to wash us, forgive us, and make us beautiful for himself. By faith, we can enter that "Beautiful" door not because of what we are, but because of what becoming in Christ.