You're Beautiful
I recently visited Leu Gardens and I was in awe at the plants I never knew existed. God’s design is infinite. Then I found the roses, how easy it is to say a rose is beautiful, the fragrance alone is overwhelming. While looking at a new born baby or images from outer space, the word “beautiful” can just flow right out of our mouth. For some reason, we get tongue tied and stutter when we look at ourselves in the mirror and wish to say, “You are beautiful.” Did God put less thought in creating a human than He did in creating the universe? If you don’t know the answer, read Genesis 1. On the sixth and final day after creating all the earth and everything in it, God created man from dust according to chapter 2. After five days of speaking the world into existence He uttered one short sentence, “It is good.” Something changed on the sixth day. He created humans, you and me. Possibly the cliché, “save the best for last” was also created at the exact same moment. Genesis 1:27 reveals that God created us in His image. Nothing else in the universe wears this label. Don’t forget God’s attuned to detail, wait for it… here it is, in verse 31, God says “behold, it was very good”. All He created that your eyes can see He called good, until He formed you in His image, then He added a powerful word, VERY.
Are you traveling the same path my mind took this morning? Phil, the songwriter, looked at the sky and said “You’re Beautiful” and I am sure you have done the same. Looked at the ocean, and thought “powerful”, watched lightning shudder the sky and an adjective popped into your head, hopefully a word you can repeat. When God created you, He did so with His own image as a template. Pretty awesome right? What if the tag on your shirt say “Designed by God”? Instead of manufactured in China, it read “Manufactured in heaven”? What a thought. In reality, those labels would need to be a tattoo. It doesn’t get much better than that. Look at your eyes, details! God loves details. Fingerprints, no one has the same as yours. Details! You are unique, but then why is it so difficult to say you are beautiful? God decided how many hairs you would have on your head. Sorry to report for some of you He changed His mind and took some back. For me, He changed my color to gray about 15 years ago. I am rebellious at times, so I now have to pay to pick my own color. Free will in action.
I challenge you over the next seven days to tell people who are in your inner circle that they are beautiful. Start today with yourself. I did. Look in the mirror, breathe, find peace and say “Beautiful”. If it makes it easier, take God’s words and say “Very Good”. Advanced challenge- on the seventh day, go back to the same mirror and say “Very beautiful”. Advanced advanced challenge- do it naked. God did not create Adam with clothes on when he determined that Adam was very good. In all of your nakedness, God says you are very good. Why do we let others tell us different? I believe the one who created me knew exactly what He was doing, do you?
