Where can we find beauty throughout God’s world? - Beauty - TouchPoints

Ecclesiastes 3:11God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Seen in its proper light, every aspect of Creation is beautiful, though different kinds of beauty are rarely permanent or lovely in the same way. The green wonder of freshly unfurled leaves in spring deepens through the summer, then it abruptly transforms into a kaleidoscope of fall colors before withering into darker hues and fluttering to the ground. That yearly transition points to something transcendent, and the eternal longings within us cry out for an answer. Even a partial understanding of the scope of God’s handiwork can and should provoke awe, humility, and gratefulness.

Proverbs 27:19As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person.

Mirrors confirm physical beauty, and a person’s responses to his or her circumstances reveal the beauty within. External beauty is as fragile as an image in water, but a person’s character can create lasting beauty.

2 Corinthians 3:18All of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

The veil of unbelief clouds our ability to see God’s glory in Christ and to reflect it to others. The Holy Spirit not only gives us spiritual sight but also works to bring more and more of the Lord’s beauty into our lives. Are others and the Holy Spirit reporting to you those kinds of changes within you?

Ephesians 5:8-9Once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

The memories and habits of our dark pasts can haunt us even when we have received Christ’s beautiful light. Our histories and habits are tools our enemy uses to declare that we have not changed. But we can turn away from our pasts and Satan’s whispers, because we know Christ wants to bring his own beautiful light into our lives. What lies about your past do you need to leave behind?

1 Peter 3:3-4Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.

Most worldly standards of beauty have in common a short shelf life determined by bodily aging and shifting styles. But beauty that flows from inner peace with God and confidence in him is lasting. We clothe ourselves with this beauty by making ourselves available to God so he can tailor his beauty to our lives.

Proverbs 19:22Loyalty makes a person attractive. It is better to be poor than dishonest.

When someone shows us costly loyalty, we experience the beauty of faithfulness. This reminds us of God, who sets the standard for loyalty by always keeping his word. The more we focus on following God and modeling his character, the more we reflect his beauty. What could be more beautiful than a perfect God?

1 Samuel 16:7The Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Since society too often emphasizes only physical attractiveness, our eyes have been trained to judge people first—and sometimes only—on the basis of their physical appearances. But God sees through physical appearance into the heart. In God’s eyes, real beauty comes from who we are, not what we look like.

1 Corinthians 15:41The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.

Paul is describing the bodies we will have when we are resurrected. He points to the beauty and variety in God’s original Creation to assure us that God has something beautiful in mind for each of us that we cannot imagine. Our growing relationship with Christ ought to create a delightful anticipation in us for what he has planned.