May11 Musings on The Mystery of Beauty

I Kings 1:3-4 Then they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful girl and found Abishag, a Shunamite, and brought her to the king. The girl was very beautiful; she took care of the king and waited on him, but the king had no intimate relations with her.

David is dying and a beautiful woman is chosen to attend him, perhaps to keep him warm - remember no central heating at the time. The writer makes the point that only the best would do to serve the king, and beauty is a qualification of the best. All of this sparks some thinking about beauty.

In high school, our Future Teachers' Club went to New York City where we met students from a school in Tennessee. Of all the young men we met, only one stands out to me. He was probably the most charming man I have ever met, and remember we were in high school. He was attentive, polite, had a sense of humor, and appeared interested in us, in me. We carried on a friendly correspondence for some months, and I actually considered going to college where he was going, a Christian college in Tennessee - Bryan College.

But he was not beautiful. He was not tall, not built, and had kind of a round head as I remember, wore glasses, and in a word, was physically homely. But he was so attractive in his person, that his looks just were not important.

Physical beauty may open a door, but what is inside keeps the door open. And physical beauty is both subjective and temporary, at least as the world defines it. Yesterday I saw a woman who has had 53 cosmetic surgeries to keep her beautiful, and she said she is going to continue to have surgeries to remain beautiful. I had to wonder who she was having the surgeries for, because it was not for other people. How sad for her....all that pain because there wasn't much inside to help her maintain relationships.

So what do we ordinary people have going for us? First we are the majority!!!! Then I think about beautiful people and the people they attract - many times other beautiful people. And without the Lord, that physical beauty tends to make one very narcissistic - or self-absorbed, not very good life-partners. Perhaps that is why Hollywood marriages tend to be of short duration - there is not enough room there for two egos of that size.

Then as I continue to think about beauty, I think about God as the creator of beauty - we are constantly attempting to capture the beauty He first created in nature. And he made us to respond to beauty in nature - there is something soothing about the beautiful sounds and scenes of nature - a sunset or sunrise, the petals of a flower or the brilliant green of unfolding leaves, the melody of birdsong or the chorus or peepers.

So where does that leave us - I think we must consider whether we are beautiful in character, or how much are we like Christ. The more like Him that we are, the more love, peace, joy, patience we exhibit, the more attractive we will be....so is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Yes, but beauty is an equal-opportunity trait....