Beauty's Real Name

By Victoria Hester

What is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?

For me, the most beautiful thing I've ever seen is the ocean. It's funny because it doesn't actually matter which ocean. I'm just in love with ocean water: the way it crashes against the shore line, the roaring sound it makes, how it reflects the light of a sunrise - everything.

This may be the most beautiful thing to me, but it is certainly not the only thing I would deem beautiful.

The other day a champagne, Sapphire rose gold engagement ring popped up on my Pinterest, and I thought, “Well, now that is beautiful, the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!” The slim and charming girl in the Old Navy ad that seemingly always convinces me to buy a new dress is definitely someone I would deem beautiful. And, I saw a brand new navy blue Tesla in the Costco parking lot last week and stood in awe for a good two minutes at its unrivaled beauty.

I think we all, but especially women, go back and forth in our perceptions of beauty. Is beauty really just superficial and only applies to things that catch our eye or make us feel good or feed our innermost desires? Or is beauty deep and all consuming? Does it flow out of an intimate relationship with God and therefore, an understanding of His innate beauty?

Is beauty even attainable? Is it limitless? Is it dangerous? Is it good?

I can't imagine how many times I have asked the Lord about the definition of beauty. The problem is, I don't always just ask the Lord. I ask myself, other people, the world, and just about everything around me. Then, sometimes, when I feel defeated, desperate, and even I little lost, I may possibly ask God. And it was there that I realized it is not that I do not know, or cannot attain beauty...

It's that I never asked the person responsible for beauty what it truly is.

In my walk with the Lord, I have found that in the love story He has written both in my life and the lives of others, He has exhibited perfect and unrivaled beauty.

He is the definition of what is beautiful, and our ability to understand and perceive beauty is directly connected to our intimate relationship with God.

Well, now what? Can I tell you exactly what beauty is? No, I can not. For myself, however, I have discovered that when the world tells me something about beauty I can bring it before the Lord, and He uses it to show me the truth. Because all the lies we are told by the enemy are just minor distortions of God’s eternal truth. Here are some of the truths God has graciously given to me.

Beauty is not homogenous.

When was the last time you were the only person of your race for days or more? If you are white, there is a possibility the answer is never. I am not white. I am black. I have spent most of my life surrounded by people who do not look like me: in school, in church, at the park, in Disney movies. It gets to you after a while. By that, I mean that it gets to your relationship with God. I am different, in more ways than one: in personality, appearance, values, passions. A younger more fragile version of myself once asked the world around me how could I possibly be beautiful, even though I was so drastically different than all of the young women I knew. The answer was, I couldn’t.

Well, I grew up. I learned to ask questions of God, and in doing so, I found something quite life-changing. You see, God is creator of the heavens and the earth and all that is within them. So, when God decided to create everything here on Earth, He, in His sovereignty, had the option to make everything the same or everything different.

Do I even have to say which one He preferred? The beauty of who God is is that He cannot be contained within one skin tone, one personality, and one hair type. No. That would be the work of a small and unimaginative God. We serve a big God who is infinitely creative and who casts the greatness of His beauty across all of creation and ways too numerous to count.

"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ." 1 Corinthians 12:12

Homogeny pushes us away from God, and I am not just talking about race anymore. I am talking about our communities, passions, desires, attractions, places of worship, and something that is close to my heart: our families. It is insulting to God to seek a homogenous beauty because it disregards His diverse beauty.

Beauty is diversity at peace with itself and abiding in body of Christ.

That means race, body type, hair textures, and eye color all ultimately matter, because in seeing their difference, we see Christ.

The body proclaims the beauty of God.

As a woman, have you ever looked at your body? Not in a mirror, but rather on your own with your own eyes?

I can only count on one hand the times in my life where I have felt completely confident in my body’s appearance. As a teenager, I was desperate to achieve an attractive physique. I risked my physical and mental health, my bank account, my friendships, a dating relationship, and even my relationship with my Father, in search for a body I wasn’t even sure I would ever achieve. I was fully committed to the lie that my body was something that should be changed and deprived and manipulated, all in order to achieve some elusive idea of beauty. And if that wasn’t damaging enough, I began to spew my warped perception of physical beauty in judgement towards others who didn’t look like me.

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27

Look at your body. It is both fragile and biologically robust. It requires care and is capable of caring for another. It is overwhelmingly specific. The body can both receive and respond to pleasure and pain. It is remarkable; a piece of art.

I have looked at my body and it turns out I like the way it moves in response to impulse and sound and touch. I like tracing the curves of my stomach when I lie in bed. One day, or maybe it was just over time, I realized that my body means something profound. God only made one thing in His image: man and woman. The very essence of the character of God is laced throughout the design and appearance of the human body. Sometimes, I follow the curves of my legs, and I am reminded of the beauty of God. Other times, I hug a dear friend and perceive contact with her body, and I am reminded of the beauty of God.

The body needs care, not modification.

It is made for worship, not shallow judgement.

It is not either beautiful or ugly; it is inherently fully beautiful.

Because it was made in the image of the author of the universe it is beautiful.

Period.