Beauty part 1
I want to stay in Song of Solomon for a while. "Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful!" (Song of Solomon 4:1). This is important to me. Because the way we see ourselves is so often very different than the way other people see us. And certainly different than the way God sees us. Now let's be clear: The one that matters is the way God sees us. Let God be true and every man a liar, right? It doesn't matter how other people see us. Lions are not concerned with the opinions of sheep. When you know the truth you can ignore the lie. If God calls you beautiful... you're beautiful. And, yes, beauty IS in the eye of the beholder. I'm not for everybody. I know that. I've accepted it. So I get in where I fit in. I try to be all things for all people. Love everybody. Go along to get along. All of that good stuff. Good, proper, stuff. At the same time, I really try to maximize my time with MY people. With the people that I share that bond with. Not just the bond of love--that's where it starts--but the bond of friendship. The people who see me for who I am, accept me for who I am, and like me for who I am. That's the real stuff. And it can be rare, but that's ok. Because it's worth it. And that's also why your relationship with God is so important. Let me drop a memory verse for you, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). When we look in the mirror we see Jesus. That is our true identity--God in the flesh, love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. Now add this to that, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). John tells us right there we are. The Son(s) of God! The problem isn't that we aren't who we're supposed to be. The problem is that we don't KNOW who we are. Or we don't know what it MEANS to be who we are. That's why we need to look in the mirror. That's why we need to let the light shine. When the light shines we can see clearly. Because the light is the light of love. When love shines we can see clearly. When someone loves you, you are beautiful to them. There are a lot of pictures of God in the Bible. Two of the biggest ones are "Father and Son" and "Bridegroom." When we see Jesus as our bridegroom we begin to see ourselves as His bride. He cleaned us, washed us with the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) and presented us to Himself without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. We are perfect to Him. And we are coming into our perfection day by day. Because, Biblically, perfection means maturity. Being who we really are by learning who we really are. And this is the best part: We aren't changed from crap to glory. We don't start at the bottom and work our way down. We don't have to try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We are changed from glory to glory. We start at glory. We start at perfect. We start at beautiful. And then, as we accept and understand and embrace our true identity we move FROM glory TO glory. We move into who we are. We begin to experience who we are. We manifest who we are. By manifesting who HE is in us. Christ in you the hope of (revealed) glory. And it's not a Hail Mary type of hope. Not a blessed hope. It's a blessed assurance. As we see Him--when He appears to us--we BE Him. We learn about ourselves by learning about Him. We be who we are by letting HIM be who HE is in us, and through us, and as us!