His Eyes
Beauty…What is beauty?
The little women in our children’s programs are working this out for themselves. Actually, they are working this out among themselves right now. Their dabbling in hair, make-up, and clothing styles usually helps identify pods of close friends within any group of young people, and I believe this to be true of many generations of little women their age.
Let’s be honest now. Many of us are still pondering this slippery question.
For my part it usually sounds a lot more like, Is that really beautiful? It has nothing to do with anyone else because I usually see the beauty in everyone but myself. No, it’s just me before the great liar and his irritating looking glass picking out the fruit of sin: what I don’t like about myself (God’s beloved creation), what I want to fix, and what I want to cover up.
My husband catches me in this silent standoff and patiently corrects me. His strong arms snag me around the middle and pull me away from the mirror. His hands gently turn me away from my thoughts and he steps between me and the reflection then tells me to look at him. In the depths of his admiring eyes, his loving heart, his probing desire to care for me I know I am beautiful and I am his.
Yes, my husband Chris will do this when he catches me, but I am usually behind a closed door in my private mom sanctuary known as the bathroom. This makes it hard for him to see what’s really going on, and honestly we have been married long enough that he tends to roll his eyes somewhere in his sweet admonishing.
The “husband” I was referring to before is the Groomsman Redeemer, Christ himself; the Husband of the Church. Oh, how I long to see what he sees when he looks at me. I want to know who I really am. I want to see the wonderful, beautiful creation He willingly died for. I want to understand that kind of love better and fully surrender to it.
Indeed, it was for my own well-being that I had such bitterness; but You have loved back my life from the pit of nothingness (destruction), for You have cast all my sins behind Your back. Isaiah 38:17 (Amp)
I watch these lovely little women as they search for their definition of beauty, and I pray they will trust Christ and seek to see themselves through His eyes. As He defines beauty in 1 Peter 3: Your adornment must not be merely external—with interweaving and elaborate knotting of the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or [being superficially preoccupied with] dressing in expensive clothes; but let it be [the inner beauty of] the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality and unfading charm of a gentle and peaceful spirit, [one that is calm and self-controlled, not overanxious, but serene and spiritually mature] which is very precious in the sight of God. (v.3-4)
Lord, thank you. Your love is such a deep and intimate place to be. I pray each woman reading this will know the desires of Your heart and live within your grace. I pray we all will see what you see when you look at us and know Your beauty, and that we will confidently come to You as your bride declaring, He has brought me to His banqueting place, and His banner over me is love waving overhead to protect and comfort me. (S.S. 2:4) Amen.
Lorinda Freeman
Lorinda has a passion and desire to teach children about the love of God. She is a homeschooling mom of four and together as a family they work within their church with the children’s programs making sure the hearts of all the children are being taught God’s love for them. Lorinda and her husband, Chris, make their home in Hibbing, Minnesota after Lorinda had endured extensive travel growing up as a Navy “brat”. 1 Thessalonians 2:6-13, “We are not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
