People seem to be obsessed with beauty in all the wrong ways. I easily find beauty in nature—in sunrises, changing leaves, and rain. Most people can see beauty in that. Yet when it comes to ourselves or other human beings we are ready to give harsh critique. I wonder why we do this especially in light of the creation story. On days one through five, God created the beautiful things that surround us and saw that it was good. Yet on day six, God created humans and saw that it was very good. How can we look at ourselves and others and call God’s most beautiful creation “not good enough?” When God knit us together in our mothers’ womb, he didn’t make mistakes. God knew what we’d look like, and God sees something very good, which should be abundantly good enough for us.
Women in particular are often given the message that they are not good enough, especially when it comes to physical beauty. Culture tells women how they should try to look, which is often an unrealistic ideal. Serious damage is done when women are taught that being physically beautiful (a scale always determined by culture) is a vital component to their spiritual being. If we look across the world and through time, we will find that cultural standards of beauty are only temporary, fleeting ideals. As Christ-followers, why do we waste our precious time on earth trying to adhere to cultural standards of beauty? Putting that credence into something unrealistic and temporary is unhealthy. We must look at ourselves in a whole new way, and redefine our perception of beauty so that it’s based on God’s revelation.
While God built us as physically beautiful creatures, there is something even more beautiful about us. We can relate to each other and to God. Genesis 1:26a says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness…’” In everything else that God created, there is no mention of the Trinity. Yet when God created humans God says, “Let us make.” We can assume that the “us” is referring to the Trinity. The Trinity is beautiful in the way it relates. The intricate dance that it weaves is beautiful. Each member of the Trinity is in such perfect unison with the others that they are considered one. Humans were created in that image. We can be different from each other, but in relationship we can be part of something bigger. We are not alone—that’s beauty.
We are also relational in that we can relate to God. God craves a close relationship with us so much that a part of God was offered as a sacrifice to make this happen. The death and resurrection of Christ is the most beautiful moment in history. The cross is the point where we come to relate to God. God wants us to be with him in relationship. This is the beauty we should crave—the true, everlasting, beauty of relating to our amazing Creator.
