When you think of the word beauty what comes to mind? Do you think of an actress who has the “perfect” body, beautiful shining luscious hair that is flowing down from her head, or eyes that are so bright you can’t look away? In my month in Swaziland God wanted to challenge me with wearing my hair up every single day for an entire month. See, I’m not a super girly person. I don’t usually wear make up and I’ve worn the most ridiculous outfits so far on the world race and could care less, but I do find beauty in my hair. I see myself beautiful when my hair is down and question it when my hair is up.
One of the first days I was at our ministry care point the kids gave me the Saswati name: Nubuhle which means beautiful and I laughed… Here I was wearing a crazy bun, headband to cover up my greasy hair, and shirt that didn’t match at all with my skirt. Then it hit me, do I really see circumstantial attractiveness as the definition of beauty? I knew then God challenged me to see Him in a new sort of intimacy. He wanted to show me where my beauty originates by stripping away layers of where I cover up my insecurities of worldly beauty. He wanted to show me beauty that is so much more pure.
This month God has brought me on a journey with Him to show me beauty in His eyes. Papa has shown me beauty exists in simply being a child of God and a night where I just spent with Him on a swing set deepening in intimacy. It is when our all girls team pick-axed the entire day showing me that beauty is found in strength. It is when God led me and my teammate Lyndsey to teach high school girls in a bible study about acknowledging lies in our life. Instead He wanted them to deepen their hearts to ask the Father what He thinks of them and flood their hearts with the truth covered in beauty of who God created them to be. It is in knowing that we are not only Gods people but His heritage. Beauty comes in the way He gave us a culture that is bonded across nations by clothing us, creating for us music that delights and glorifies Him, and unifying people of all nations together as one body. (1Kings 8:51) It is found in His creation as I saw that through a majestic lion and herd of zebras so reverent with power. It is found through going an extra lap on a run even though everyone already finished because God might want me to spend a little bit more time with me along the journey to freedom. It means picking up trash out of a garden for the locals because even if they aren’t used to the clutter being removed, we get to show them what they deserve when it comes to beauty from how God sees them. Finally, it is in the dust and thorn bushes that fill the landscape of this country. The dust shows that beautiful things are to be made and the thorn bushes (that are the same that made Jesus’ crown of thorns) show that because of Him giving up our life we get the opportunity to be a regeneration washed in the beauty and purpose set out for us. Beauty is Him crowning us with life in our most shameful moments in life and knowing that the jewels that He crowned us with reflect into His eyes and that is how He sees us.
Each one us are “fearfully and wonderfully made” because God makes beautiful things out of dust. Dust is merely dust but when He breathes life into our dry bones we automatically have beauty and strength from inside our hearts. Attractiveness is undeniable but true beauty is found in strength which is unquestionable.
God showed me this specific beauty this morning on a run. Today, I was on my second lap to the railroad tracks and I accidentally fell on my knees after tripping over a huge rock and blood started gushing out. At that point since I wasn’t in very much pain, I decided to run back. Along the way I saw people walking while my bruise was showing. I realized they didn’t even see my bloody knee because we were too busy smiling at each other. See, in life we shouldn’t be afraid to show our bruises to others and big rocks where we have tripped along the way because beauty is shown in these moments. Strength is so much more prevalent when you see the bruises in each other’s lives while complemented by the smile that overpowers the weaknesses. Beauty reflected in strength that each one of us has as we show our bloody knees the make our smiles more beautiful every single time. This is what true beauty is.
