Day 33 - Issue 26
1 Samuel 16:7 NLT
'The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'
It’s often said that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. This saying avoids all discussion about beauty, consigning it to individual taste. This might be useful in discussing the aesthetics of art or architecture, where we can hold an intelligent conversation around differences in perception. However, there are no overarching criteria for determining what and, more importantly, who is beautiful. Scripture declares that beauty is something that breaks out from the very essence of a person to light up the world. It is neither dependent nor constrained upon their physicality or inner psychological woundedness. It is perhaps best described as happiness personified.
Our brains are wired to make judgements of people based on initial reactions, visual and sensed. Inner prejudices are awakened and inform our initial reactions and responses. But God sees the true inner essence of each one of us. This is the engine room of both our beauty and our happiness. To know and to be known offers safety, acceptance, and meets our need to belong with others. Our social need is met, and such social interaction secures our long-term well-being.
Consumerism might deceive us with the notion that beauty is skin deep, yet any one of us who has experienced real life will tell you that beauty is the product of hard work. Jayne had a tough start to life. She had to face any number of knock-backs to her self-confidence and self-esteem. In many ways she never saw herself as physically pretty. Yet, holding onto God, as much as knowing God had hold of her, she broke through the barriers that mentally held her back from realising her true beauty. Each was only smashed as she prayerfully and practically held her nerve and courageously pushed back against barriers others had erected on her road. With God she had both the strength and courage to move them aside and, as each one moved, her beauty, and therefore happiness, grew. She refused to remain a prisoner of her past.
QUESTION: What do you think the Lord sees when he looks at your heart?
PRAYER: Lord, thank you that in Christ you have given me a new heart, one alive to you and your beauty.
