Guest Author - LeeAnn Bonds
Which is more astonishing…a momentary masterpiece of towering cumulonimbus clouds gilded with gold and amethyst by the setting sun, or a fossil of a gorgeous giant dragonfly with a two foot wingspan, whose fellows buzzed through ancient summer skies for millennia?
God splashes beauty everywhere, in every nook and cranny on this our fallen planet. It may be fleeting as a baby’s smile. It may linger a few days in the fragrant wild rose blossoms before they fade and fall. It may endure for an eon. The beauty of a particular bend in the Pend Oreille River, hung with mists each morning and gold plated under every evening sun, soaks into my soul day by day, and it will continue long past the day I fall into Jesus’ arms. Yet even the river is temporary. God promises a new Heaven and a new Earth, and it seems unlikely that my favorite stretch of water will be duplicated in the revamped topography.
But there is a beauty that is everlasting, that we can draw into our hearts and cherish for all time.
Think of the beauty of Almighty God, Creator of the universe, laying aside his magnificence and stepping down into our dusty, deranged world, because he loves us. Think of Jesus subjecting himself to fallible human parents, irritating brothers, contemptuous and gossiping neighbors, to mend our tragic fall.
Think, if you can bear it, of this Man whose every molecule is bursting with supernatural power from before time began, allowing soldiers to strip him, mock him, spit on him and whip him and rip out fistfuls of his beard. Think of his heart breaking as he hears the people he taught and fed and healed screaming for him to be crucified. What astounding beauty is it that could walk the path to the cross after that?
Isaiah wrote that Jesus has no special appearance or splendor, nor beauty that we should desire him. But when you know him, you find that he is pure and eternal beauty. He transformed the most horrible method of execution mankind has devised into our means of redemption and reconciliation. He transformed defeat into victory and conquered death forever. He changes despair to hope, loneliness to fellowship, hatred to kindness, world-weariness to sweet joy and exquisite expectation.
Beloved, he poured out his beautiful soul to death for us, to make our souls beautiful. His appearance was marred more than any man’s, but I know that when we see him as he is, he will be more beautiful than we can imagine.
Whatever beauty you may see in your mirror, or in the mall, or on the big screen, I pray it is not blinding you to the only true beauty. I pray “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God…” this is the most astonishing beauty of all.
