Thoughts while Traveling
5.27.2005
what's real
~ read this devotional written by one of my favorite lyricists and musicians, as well as a kindred spirit. It resonated with me and I thought I would post it just in case somebody out there needed to be reminded...
're Beautiful - from the iWorship Devotional
by Sara Groves
If eyes are the windows to a person’s soul, it is no wonder that there has never been a rendition of the face of Christ that satisfies my question: what did Jesus look like? What artist could capture the eyes of Emanuel, God with us? What actor could portray the eyes that act as windows into the very soul of God? We can only make crude and barbaric guesses, and we can only use the poorest substitutes to convey those eyes.
And yet, according to scripture, the Messiah was nothing special to look at. “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (Isaiah 53:2b) I’m sure many people passed him on the street or even spoke to him without pause. People without spiritual sight miss beautiful things all the time, because in kingdom language, what God calls beautiful is not what our world calls beautiful. Though seeing, we do not see. (Matthew 13:13)
And that is where I find myself. I am in a world where I am surrounded by unattainable definitions of beauty. I constantly compare myself to air-brushed fiction, and question my worth because of my inability to pull off perfection that even the most beautiful people don’t really pull off in real life. On a bad day, my favorite thought is that there is another kingdom, and in that other kingdom beauty has nothing to do with toned thighs and long eyelashes.
But on a really bad day, my next thought is, “That’s right, it’s not about your thighs, it’s about your heart,” knowing full well that on a really bad day my heart is even more ugly than my thighs. Enter Jesus, the Most Beautiful, and “...the radiance of God’s glory.” (Hebrews 1:3) Jesus didn’t come to shame me. He didn’t come to be perfect and then say, “See, it’s easy to be perfect.” Jesus came to make me truly beautiful like he is truly beautiful.
Christ took on my appearance when he hung on the cross. The One who had no ugliness in him became the ugliest for me, so that in Him I might become beautiful. (2Cor 5:21) Paul says that I can even stand with confidence before my creator. “Through faith in Jesus we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” (Ephesians 3:12) I can’t imagine standing before a God who sees all things with confidence, but because of Christ I can and will stand “without blemish”. (Eph 5:27)
This is my most humbling thought on a really bad day: because Jesus looked like me, I can look like Him. And He is beautiful.
're Beautiful - from the iWorship Devotional
by Sara Groves
If eyes are the windows to a person’s soul, it is no wonder that there has never been a rendition of the face of Christ that satisfies my question: what did Jesus look like? What artist could capture the eyes of Emanuel, God with us? What actor could portray the eyes that act as windows into the very soul of God? We can only make crude and barbaric guesses, and we can only use the poorest substitutes to convey those eyes.
And yet, according to scripture, the Messiah was nothing special to look at. “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (Isaiah 53:2b) I’m sure many people passed him on the street or even spoke to him without pause. People without spiritual sight miss beautiful things all the time, because in kingdom language, what God calls beautiful is not what our world calls beautiful. Though seeing, we do not see. (Matthew 13:13)
And that is where I find myself. I am in a world where I am surrounded by unattainable definitions of beauty. I constantly compare myself to air-brushed fiction, and question my worth because of my inability to pull off perfection that even the most beautiful people don’t really pull off in real life. On a bad day, my favorite thought is that there is another kingdom, and in that other kingdom beauty has nothing to do with toned thighs and long eyelashes.
But on a really bad day, my next thought is, “That’s right, it’s not about your thighs, it’s about your heart,” knowing full well that on a really bad day my heart is even more ugly than my thighs. Enter Jesus, the Most Beautiful, and “...the radiance of God’s glory.” (Hebrews 1:3) Jesus didn’t come to shame me. He didn’t come to be perfect and then say, “See, it’s easy to be perfect.” Jesus came to make me truly beautiful like he is truly beautiful.
Christ took on my appearance when he hung on the cross. The One who had no ugliness in him became the ugliest for me, so that in Him I might become beautiful. (2Cor 5:21) Paul says that I can even stand with confidence before my creator. “Through faith in Jesus we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” (Ephesians 3:12) I can’t imagine standing before a God who sees all things with confidence, but because of Christ I can and will stand “without blemish”. (Eph 5:27)
This is my most humbling thought on a really bad day: because Jesus looked like me, I can look like Him. And He is beautiful.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home