Mary Richards and Me

what is beautiful? who can say?

Posted on 7/19/2010 at 8:08:43 PM

Philosophers and artists have speculated and argued for centuries about what constitutes “beauty” and who qualifies as a “beautiful person”. They’ve changed their minds on the subject again and again and again. Simply walk through an art museum and you’ll get an idea of how much beauty has confounded human beings throughout history.

For as long as the discussion of beauty has been going on (pretty much forever), you might think we would have settled those questions by now. Guess again. Today, in the 21st century, we’re still struggling to understand beauty.

Movies, television, fashion experts, supermodels, fitness gurus, cosmetic companies, magazines, and tabloids, however, have messed with our minds and made it extremely difficult for us to recognize true beauty. We’re told to think that beauty is physical perfection, it’s youth, it’s symmetry, it’s perfect features, it’s sex appeal, it’s style, it’s a size 2. I’m sure you can add to the list.

I certainly don’t claim to have had any success in avoiding these destructive, deceptive influences or to have a complete handle on recognizing true beauty. I’m just as confused and messed up as anyone, if not more. Believe me.

Fortunately, over my brief life, I’ve discovered and been taught some important clues to help me see beauty as God designed it. Unfortunately, I seem to repeatedly forget them at crucial moments. I have this post to thank for inspiring the following musings on beauty:

1. God is Beautiful. Psalm 27:4 says, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.”

2. God is the Author of beauty. This is going to sound Platonic but that’s because Plato was onto something (as Augustine later pointed out): Because God is Beauty (and Goodness and Truth) everything else in creation that is beautiful points to and reflects (“participates in”) God’s beauty. So we cannot take credit for beauty, even when we appear to create it. Ultimately, everything that is beautiful is so only because God has made it so and because God is so Himself. As Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

3. Yet, beauty isn’t everything. Proverbs 11:22 says, “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion.” Another oft-quoted verse, Proverbs 31:30, says, “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

4. Physical beauty won’t last forever. James 1:11 says, “For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes.” Like plants, our mortal, sin-scarred bodies deteriorate over time and eventually become nothing more than dirt.

5. Only “inner” beauty is eternal. 1 Peter 3:3-4 says, “Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” Thus, non-physical beauty alone will avoid the ravaging effects of time and sin.

I wish I could say I have these five truths ingrained on my brain, but I don’t. To be quite honest, I’ve found it rather easy to listen to and accept the whispers and shouts of the media, to flip through magazines in the check-out aisle, to fall into superficial comparison games, and to end up with unrealistic, unbiblical judgments about beauty.

So it’s good to have a reminder every so often. Thanks, Mom, for this most recent one. You too are beautiful, inside and out.