It’s hard to stop and see the beauty around us with all the chores of life. When the weather channel forecasts snow for instance, there is so much prep to do: shopping for essentials, food, sodium chloride, candles in case the power goes out. Then afterwards…the mounds of snow that have to be moved off of cars, driveways and streets. So many chores follow a snow storm that we often forget to just look around at the beauty all the snow around us produces. It’s often the same in Autumn when all the leaves fall. I mean how often do we stop to really see all the natural beauty around us that God has created: the sky, the earth, the stars and all the different people on the earth. Isaiah 40:26 says, “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.” Isaiah is speaking of the stars, all the beautiful stars in the sky that God created, and like them, God created all of us. All of us are beautiful and perfect because we were made in His image and by Him.
The word beauty is especially dear to me because it’s one of Erik’s pet names for me. He calls me beauty a lot and I love when he says it because he isn’t using it when I’m all dressed up or when I’ve bothered to put make-up on or actually combed my hair. No, he uses it when I still have sleep in my eyes or when I have what looks like a nest on my head. The beauty he means is the beauty that lives inside of all of us. The type we can’t see with our eyes but we feel so deeply with our souls. The kind we see in our parents or when we look at our children or in any of our loved ones. The kind that gets us through all the moments that make up a life; past the tears and to the laughter. I came across a saying that best describes what I’m talking about. It says: “What is truly beautiful is the soul that has endured, that has overcome…that says I am going to keep trying and believing, that still smiles in the morning despite a night of tears, that still chooses healing in the face of pain. Because in the end, true beauty in this world has the reflection, the fragrance, the material and the character of god’s grace.”
That is how Erik makes me feel when he calls me beauty. I feel his love in it. We all have that beauty in us. God placed it there. He gave it to all of us because it’s what He sees when he looks at us…1 Samuel 16:7 says…“Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” God is speaking to Samuel about King David here. The man who would defeat a giant and become King and that the bible describes as a “man after god’s own heart.” How beautiful is that!