Dear moms and dads of attractive children,
It is time to celebrate the beauty bestowed upon your child. I am not trying to tell you that the fact that your child has been blessed with physical beauty is the most important, but I wish you would stop saying that it isn’t important. Physical beauty is not eternal, but Jesus Christ is and He was present at creation and He knit that pretty child together and He decided to give them a temporal gift so He could be glorified, so stop dismissing compliments. Every good and perfect gift is from the Lord; this includes your brains and humor and skills and talents and money and your physical beauty.
In the past 24 hours, I have observed a few poignant things. I traveled to Kentucky for my cousin’s funeral, and and after visitation, I enjoyed catching up with family as we shared dinner. A precocious and beautiful 10 year old joined us for dinner. She entertained us with stories and trivia. She declared that she loves being smart, but when I asked her if she also likes being pretty, she said, “No… It’s embarrassing to be pretty.”
This morning, I attended the funeral. My cousin was beautiful. She was young and fun and fought her cancer with all her might. All the testimonies I read and heard about Elizabeth this week told of her kindness, willingness to help and lead and love. Elizabeth was undeniably pretty. She was a blue-eyed blonde athlete with a smile that dazzled you. She must have known she was beautiful, and she used her beauty to bless others. People are drawn to beauty but they don’t stick around if beauty is all you have to offer. Elizabeth seemed to figure that out and thousands were blessed by knowing her. She drew them in and then blessed the socks of them with all she had to offer.
As I continue to meditate and study through my chronological bible, I read this passage today about the last days of King David’s life.
“King David was now very old, and no matter how many blankets covered him, he could not keep warm. So his advisers told him, “Let us find a young virgin to wait on you and look after you, my lord. She will lie in your arms and keep you warm.” So they searched throughout the land of Israel for a beautiful girl, and they found, Abishag and brought her to the king. The girl was very beautiful, and she looked after the king and took care of him. But the king had no sexual relations with her.”
1 Kings 1:1-4 (NLT)
It is important to observe that the king’s faithful men searched all over for a physically beautiful girl. Their mission was to find a way to comfort their king. Abishag was beautiful; it is a key point in the passage. Beauty soothes and extends comfort to those who are confronted by it. This is the same reason why we find peace at the beach or the lake or the mountains. We are drawn to and comforted by beauty. It is also important to observe that Abishag didn’t use her beauty to seduce or titillate. She used it to comfort and serve the king.
I think many of us have contributed confusion to our culture when it comes to beauty, and so our daughters express that it is embarrassing to be pretty. We have taught them to dismiss and shrug off compliments about how pretty they are. Please stop this. Beauty is shallow when we view it as ours. Beauty is short-lived and off-putting when it is esteemed as the most important, but when we recognize beauty as a gift from God, it is a celebration. If God chose to make your daughter beautiful, teach her to rejoice and to say “Thank you”. Teach her to do some God-flaunting. Her beauty reflects God’s plan and design that He chose especially for her. She has been given the opportunity to comfort and serve and lead and evangelize with the help of this gift. It is a good and perfect gift given not for her glory, but for God’s. How exciting is it to embrace this and contribute your portion to the eternal things that matter.
“Forbid it Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Isaac Watts 1707
“Charm is deceitful and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30 (ESV)
“Do not be deceived, dear brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” James 1:16-18 (ESV)