Beautiful

In their quest to name the most beautiful woman alive or the sexiest man alive, neither Time Magazine nor People Magazine have ever really nailed it. Beauty is so much more than a face.

• It is the look on a father’s face as he sees the ultrasound image of his baby while holding the mother’s hand.
• It is a mother who strokes the head of her newborn while he nurses at her breast.
• It is a grandparent holding their grandchild.
• The aging hands of a great-grandparent embracing the hands of new life.
• A great-aunt and uncle who take in family and care for them as their own
• A woman with a mother’s heart, longing for children to call her own and the man with the heart of a father, full of love and hope, looking to the future
• A father spinning his child through the air
• A parent changing a diaper
• It is dropping off a child at school on the first day, knowing you are doing what is best for the child even while your heart breaks
• Beauty is a family built through adoption
• A mother, sacrificially, allowing her child to live, though she cannot provide the care the child needs
• It is a child who stares at his parents in admiration
• Beauty walks down the aisle to her husband, hands shaking nervously or in delight.
• It stands awaiting his bride, a look of awe upon his face
• Beauty belongs to the heart of the one who loves her pet and cares for it carefully with love
• Sisters who laugh together or cry together
• Brothers helping one another
• It is the first pair of glasses for aging eyes
• It is a person who hears for the first time through the miracle of implants
• It is family
• It is Time!
• Beauty runs through the sprinkler and dances in the rain.
• Beauty is in hand picked flowers given in love.
• In a painted wall or picture hung with care to touch the heart of the one you love.
• It’s in a dinner prepared to share together or even apart.
• It is love. It is sacrifice. It is honor and hope and dreams fulfilled or even in ones we conquer fear and take the risk to reach for.
• It is a marriage which has survived the highs and lows, conquered the mountains and remained together.
• It is the courage of an abused woman (or man) to leave that abuse and forge a new life on their own
• Beauty rests in the ones who feed the hungry and clothe the poor
• Beauty is Mother Theresa or the unknown warrior on the street bringing socks and blankets to the homeless
• Beauty touches those others will not touch
• It visits the hospitals, sits with those who mourn and rejoices with those who rejoice
• Beauty leads with purpose.
• Beauty is assertive but not aggressive
• Beauty plans or is spontaneous
• Beauty is a man upon a cross, arms stretched wide for me and for you as he draws his last breath in an earthly body.
• It is an empty tomb and a hope for more than we could ever imagine!

I could go on forever! There is so much beauty in the heart of God’s creation, for true beauty resides not in the outward appearance but in the heart of the matter. It is a light piercing the darkness. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross said the following:

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”

King Solomon put it this way:

“God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart...

Ecclesiastes 3:11

What is beauty to you? Look for it! I promise you, if you choose to see beauty you will find it daily.

Would you take a moment to share what beauty is to you?

Have a beautiful filled day, my friend!