The Write Word: The Beautiful Woman

God created a world of beauty. He could have made everything that grows green. Tomatoes and carrots and apples, plums and strawberries would have provided the same nutrition had they all been green. But he chose to paint them vivid reds, oranges, pinks and purples. I guess he liked color.

He could have made everything feel the same. But I suppose he must have delighted in texture to, for look how he made banana’s smooth and creamy but he added seeds to the skins of strawberries for some crunch. He made the velvety petals of African violets, covered with a fur-like feel and the smooth silk like petals of the tulip to contrast one another. How he much love details. Hyacinths are covered in scads of little bitty individual flowers while the Russian sunflower has but one, larger than your head! I suppose God must love texture and detail, as evidenced in His work.

And fragrance… well I suppose that roses and camellias and Casa Blanca Lilies could have all smelled the same, but they don’t. Their creator designed each to carry its individual signature fragrance, and to share that fragrance with us!

And then there is taste. We could have survived with just one kind of taste. Everything could have tasted like lettuce. But God made green onions, purple onions, Vandalia onions, white and yellow onions. Each with a different flavor. He made garlic, basil, thyme, oregano, and cayenne pepper! The mango tastes different than the pear, which tastes different than the papaya, which tastes different than the plum, orange, tangerine, apple and cherry! And they taste different, because GOD made it so. He didn’t do it by accident. He never does anything by accident. So thus we can conclude He did it on purpose. And since HE doesn’t eat it, it must have been done for us.

All around us we are surrounded by the beauty that God made and gave us. Sights, sounds, tastes and smells. All these delightful things God did to give us beauty. So I propose that if GOD likes beautiful things… I can too.

Like all of Gods creation I should be beautiful. I should look, taste, smell and feel beautiful. But how? The world tells me that I can purchase this beauty. It tells me that in order to smell beautiful I must use their brand deodorant & their brand perfume. But the scripture tells me that my praise to God is as a ‘sweet smelling savor’ The fragrance that wafts from me can come from the praise my life gives to God. That’s how I can smell beautiful.

And how about sounding beautiful? Well ‘Verbal Advantage’ offers to train me in speaking ‘POWERFULLY’ for a mere $200 or so. Offering me the words that will change my perception by others. But the scripture tells me “Let your speech minister grace to the hearer” That’s how I can sound beautiful. By speaking words of love and truth and comfort to those I meet. With my words I can build a bridge between warring family members, I can craft a warm coat to wrap the cold heart, I can weave a bandage to cover the gaping wound of a hurting soul. With my words. That’s how God wants my speech to be beautiful.

And texture…. skin products offer us everything from hair removal, wrinkle reducer, age spot diminisher, dry skin hydrator, large pore tighener, cellulite remover, skin polisher and last but certainly not least sun damage inhibitor. I can lighten, tighten, whiten & brighten with these marvelous products. But they only affect my outer layer. They do nothing for the real me. The skin I wear is going to sag, wrinkle, peel and one day turn to dust. And while I should, and do, take care of it as best I can I have to remember that it’s just the outer layer. What really matters is what is inside the skin I wear.

I love beautiful hair and beautiful clothes, and I think God does too. The clothing he designed, priestly garments, were beautiful in color and detail. But it would be foolish of me to assume that clothes are what makes a woman beautiful. It is the attitude that determines whether a woman is beautiful or not. In the NT we are admonished that the thing that is most beautiful about us is not to be the way we fix our hair or the clothing we wear, it is to be our attitude of service, our humble (not demanding our way) spirit and our willingness to care for others. That’s what really makes a woman beautiful.

I suppose one of the most beautiful women in the world was Mother Teresa. She was the epitome of service. And she was admired and respected for it. There were undoubtedly women of her generation who were more physically appealing to the eye. But those women have paled in comparison to her beauty. For theirs faded with time and vanished. Hers will live forever.

That’s the secret of real beauty. It does not diminish or fade with time. It is not captured by the young and gradually relinquished with age. It grows and becomes more and more and more beautiful with time. Beauty of the spirit, attitude and action. These three are beauties that will last.