You Are Beautiful, Day 2

So some of you may be wondering, why beauty? What made me latch onto this theme so much that I'd want to write about it for thirty days, or have other people write about it for me for thirty days? To this I would say, think about the highest praise you can give a thing. Oftentimes it's that that thing is beautiful, or if it is something like art or nature, which is supposed to be beautiful, you would say that a particular subject is more beautiful, or the most beautiful. Think about who we idolize in our society: people who are rich, powerful, or beautiful.

Going from that point- that we idolize people who are rich, powerful, or beautiful- let me pause. We do idolize these people, but we also recognize that there is something about money and power which can corrupt a person. There is something about them that, while attractive, is not quite pure. We are instinctively wary around people we perceive as being very wealthy or very powerful, but beauty puts us at ease. It is difficult to mistrust that which is beautiful, because it speaks to some subconscious part of us in a way that other things do not. Wealth and power cause us to fold in on ourselves, if you will, as if for protection, but beauty is evocative. Beauty exposes vulnerability.

To put it another way, and to borrow from one of my favorite bloggers, "There are three Transcendentals, three infinite goals that man naturally strives for. He strives for Goodness (that which he should obey), Truth (that which he should believe), and Beauty (that which he should admire). To the Christian worldview, these three Transcendentals, in their perfection, are God Himself. God is goodness, truth and beauty. In their imperfect form—that is, in all man's pitiful attempts to be Good, to know Truth, and to reach Beauty—God is pointed to. They are each images of God." Does that last sentence sound familiar? It should, because it sounds like Genesis 1:27, "God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." God is beauty itself. Earthly beauty is an image of God. Man and woman are in the image of God. Therefore, man and woman must also be beautiful.

However, this is knowledge which, even if we have it, we may lose from time to time. It is Satan's job to take us away from God, and part of how he does that is by convincing us that we are not as like God as we are. If we are beautiful because we are in the image of God, who is beauty, then it stands to reason that Satan would try to convince us that we are not, in fact, beautiful. Of course, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the help he receives from modern society. One impossible, non-existent standard of beauty is perpetuated, which causes us to look at ourselves and conclude that we are not beautiful.

You may wonder, perhaps, why it is that Satan does not simply try to convince us that there is no such thing as beauty, just as he has gradually eroded the idea of a concrete good and a concrete truth. If there were no beauty, then there would be no God, and if there were no God, then would we not be separated from Him by virtue of our ignorance of Him? We would indeed be separate from God if we believed He did not exist, but the problem for Satan is that, like all other creatures, he needs God. He needs God more than any of us do. If Satan were to try to convince humans that there is no beauty, and thus, no God, then he would be arguing for his own non-existence, as well. It is not to say that Satan is beautiful, but that if man did not believe God exists, then there would be no need for Satan. A non-existent God does not need an existent enemy. Satan needs beauty to exist so humans will keep believing in God, so he can draw them away from Him.

Especially in such a culture as ours, which places an imaginary beauty on a pedestal, Satan does not need to be that small voice in the back of our minds saying, "You're not as pretty as her," or "You'll never look like he does." No, with all the hypersexual, airbrushed and photoshopped ads we see every day, he can be that voice right in front of us saying "Buy [product name] now, and you could lose up to 25lbs!", or the feature article on a magazine, saying "Exclusive! 15 Secret Beauty Tips Straight from Milan!" Our beauty as creatures in the image and likeness of God, the very pinnacle of His creation, is under attack constantly, and I wanted to use this month to combat that. Because beauty speaks to my heart in the same way it speaks to the hearts of others, I wanted to take an opportunity to remind others that beauty, like dignity, comes from being a child of God. Because God uses beauty to move our hearts, I wanted to remind you of your inherent power to do the same. God made you beautiful, because He made you like Him.