Using Beauty

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**
 
    We all have our standards of beauty. Whether we admit it or not we have our preferences of what is beautiful. We have different tastes, styles, etc. This is understandable.

    As I consider what I perceive as beautiful I recognize that I value things of beauty that work, that function that give me something back that I deem valuable.

    For some reason I equate beauty with function, with what it can offer me. I rate beauty according to my needs, my wants and my demands. An ornate plate has lost its beauty because it is broken and cannot be used as a plate. A painting has lost its beauty because of age, scratches and mistreatment. A person has lost his or her beauty because he or she cannot function at the pace and ability of the rest of most of humanity.

    With this utilitarian concept of beauty I cannot see the value of a person. I miss how they are created in the image of God and reflect Him. I show favoritism and withhold love from others.

    How does your perspective of beauty influence how you love others?  
**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Too Busy for Beauty

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    Beauty requires us to slow down. Beauty requires being seen, heard, felt and experienced. Beauty requires time. It requires time to listen fully and deeply to a piece of music. It requires time to take in the natural beauty of water, mountains, flowers and forests. It requires time to look at a piece of art, understand its story and consider what it means for you. It requires time to see the person standing before you, sitting next to you.

    God has given us beauty in so many forms and in our hurried world filled with superficial extras we miss beauty. We miss God.

    How will you take time for beauty today?

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Fabricating Beauty

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    Technology increases and our ability to fabricate beauty does as well. Colors are more vivid, eyes widened and legs diminished. Beauty becomes an image rather than a three-dimensional thing that we can touch, smell, see all around and hear fully.

    As beauty becomes more and more fabricated we settle for the two-dimensional image on the screen. Rather than visiting the Grand Tetons we exchange an image for the real thing. Rather than smell the aroma of sweet fruit plucked in season we settle for a scratch and sniff sticker.

    So we settle, beauty and life is fabricated and we settle. When we settle we begin to exchange these images for the real thing. We lose an aspect of the joy and gift of being human, the gift of being able to see, touch, feel and be within beauty.

    How will you choose to be in real beauty today? How will you choose to be in beauty rather than live in images of the real thing?

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Redefining Beauty

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    The theme of beauty has been on my mind and heart the past week. I have been challenged because I often equate beauty with function and usefulness. Something is beautiful because it offers me something. I have such a shallow view of beauty and am often too lazy or busy to look deeper. The disciples even considered Mary’s expensive sacrifice as a waste. Jesus called it beautiful. (Matthew 26:6-13)

    I have also been reminded of the beauty of God, the beauty of resurrection and the beauty of new life.

    God’s eyes that see to the deepest parts of creation and sees something for all the richness, glory and beauty it has been created with. The beauty of God stands in stark contrast to my idea of beauty.

    I need a reformation, a redefinition and new understanding of beauty; beauty that begins and ends in God Himself. I need a beauty that is not calculated by usefulness but understood through the eyes of God - beauty that is true, rich and never-ending.

    How do you see beauty? How might Jesus change the way you define beauty?

Have more than two minutes? Spend some time in the story of Mary of Bethany and Jesus respond to her in Matthew 26:6-13.

**Sit in silence again for as long as is available to you.**