Much has been said and written about beauty. Television ads, magazine articles, and of course, social media confirm that we are obsessed with beauty. However, this is not new. A love for what is beautiful has been around since the beginning. God looked at His creation and saw that it was “good.” Everything about it was perfect, made according to His exact specifications—beautiful. The culmination of His beautiful creation was man, and that too, He deemed “good.”
Today’s standard for beauty is high, nearly unattainable. The adage, “Beauty is only skin deep” is a mere whisper from days gone by—at least it seems that way. After all, doesn’t the statement mean that real beauty can’t truly be assessed with a simple glance? That a person cannot be judged as beautiful or not beautiful by merely being “looked at.” In reality, true beauty has nothing to do with a person’s physical appearance; it is far more complex, yet somehow simple. Beauty comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, ages, and cultures. It is the Ethiopian mother who works long hours every weekend so that she can be at home with her children during weekdays. It is the woman from Iran who spends many a morning putting her whole heart into cooking for people who are volunteering to help others. Beauty is the wrinkled face of a grandfather who has sacrificed everything so that his children and grandchildren can have opportunities that he didn’t have. It is the fresh-faced child who happily shares his toys with a new friend. Beauty comes in the form of a young man assisting a stranger who needs help loading furniture onto her truck or the woman who shows up a couple of times a week to deliver meals to the elderly. It’s the businessman who shares his wealth to help feed others and the child who forgoes a birthday present because she wants to help people. Beauty comes early to clean a building because it needs to be done, unloads a truck even when tired. Beauty takes time to talk to people---people from other cultures who speak different languages, even. Beauty makes time for others because they are worthwhile, valuable—beautiful. Like her, they are beautiful because “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and the Beholder, God Himself, deemed her beautiful in the beginning when looked at His perfect creation and called it “good.”