God's beauty is reflected in everything we see; from the mountains to the rivers -- from the heavens to the meadows (and everything in between), God's beauty is reflected in all of His creation (Psalms 19:1). According to Webster's dictionary, the word "reflect" means to "give back as an image, likeness, or outline: MIRROR." It also states that to "reflect" something means to "make manifest or apparent." In other words, all of creation (including you) MIRRORS God's own essence of beauty. Isn't that amazing? However, here's the problem: we've become so fixated on and obsessed with the idea that beauty is to be reflected, that we've diminished beauty to a mere reflection in the mirror. It is so much more than that, lovely.
Before his day of rest, do you know what the final thing God created was? It was woman. She was the Creator's finishing touch, the crowned jewel of all creation... a true beauty to behold. She reflects God's own essence of beauty so magnificently, so uniquely -- yet the enemy has convinced her otherwise.
Let's do a little thought experiment: Beyond it's physical appearance, how do you know something is beautiful? How can a song, something that you cannot see with your eyes, be beautiful? How can something that doesn't possess physical form (i.e. a voice, a dream, the love shared between friends and family) be beautiful? Could it be that beauty is more than meets the eye? I believe so.
One night in prayer when I had had enough, after feeling so broken and defeated, so exhausted from running after the elusive image of beauty that I'd conjured up in my mind, God gave me that revelation. It was so profound because it goes against our own cultural expectations of what beauty ought to be: visual, visible, aesthetically appealing, alluring to the eyes. But when God gave me that insight, I experienced such an immeasurable peace because I knew it was true.
My low self-esteem and negative self-image came from a place of feeling inadequate and feeling unworthy. Those feelings were magnified in the mirror -- so much so that I could only see myself from a place of inadequacy and unworthiness.
"My hair isn't long enough," I would think.
"My smile isn't pretty enough," I would believe.
"I am not enough."
"I am not enough."
"I am not enough."
And unfortunately, those lies were whispered to me for so long that I actually began to believe them. I was shackled in a prison of inadequacy that I even believed I would never have what it takes to be set free.
But guess what? It was never up to me. That spirit of inadequacy and unworthiness was crucified on the cross with Jesus Christ himself. He made you enough. His grace made you enough. His sacrifice made you worthy. Once I realized that for myself, I was liberated from that desolate prison of inadequacy.
The moment you limit beauty to just aesthetic appearance is the moment you are blinded to what real, true, genuine beauty is: unseen. God whispered to me in that moment of brokenness, "The type of beauty I see in you cannot be reflected in a mirror." Dear one, your beauty is so much deeper than a reflection in the mirror.
To compare yourself to someone else is to rob yourself of all the beauty God himself has placed inside of you. Stop reducing your worth to your outward appearance. Your physical appearance could never fully grasp the depth and utter reality of your value. Translating your worth to physicality completely diminishes it, and does you such a disservice.
You are a masterpiece and God makes no mistakes. Ever. He designed you beautifully, intricately, intentionally inside your mother's womb (Jeremiah 1:5) and you are his glorious, beautiful creation. Speak it over yourself. Over and over and over again until YOU believe it. You need to believe it -- others are counting on you to believe it, lovely.
Beauty (the real, authentic, unadulterated, pure kind) is embedded into your essence and is expressed in so many ways, but especially in a heart of vulnerability and surrender. It comes from a place of truly knowing who you are in Christ. No man, no woman, no celebrity, no gene, no comparison, and no one (not even yourself!) can change that you are beautiful -- please read it again until it sinks in. Your beauty has already been established; God has already made it so. All you need to do is believe.
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