New Reminders: Beauty

Beauty can be described as a positive characteristic of a person, animal, place, or thing that can be seen or felt as pleasurable, meaningful or satisfying.  It usually refers to something observable but can also be perceived emotionally as a beautiful idea or awesome phenomenon.  

Something beautiful is almost always experienced as a positive reaction.  Great beauty can be awe inspiring.  Of course, something that is awesome can also be awful.  For example, to a person who buys a home on the beach, with a beautiful ocean view, might think the ocean waves look and sound awesome, but when a storm blows in, those waves might threaten the home.  The homeowner realizes that the waves look and sound awful.

In similar fashion, a woman’s hands might look ugly, to the woman to whom the hands belong.  She might think that, compared to the hands she remembers from her youth, her arthritic, gnarled joints look awful.  Yet, to an artist, who is preparing to draw the hands, they might look emblematic of hard work and a life well lived, and he might describe the hands as “Beautiful!”

To some people, beauty is not at all about outward appearance, but more about deeper human qualities, like kindness, compassion and decency.  In nature, beauty is hidden in everything, including rocks and wild weeds.  Beauty is present in every human being.  Indeed, it is in every part of God’s creation and in many human endeavors.  However, at a conference, I once heard a scientist describe the math and physics behind the development of the atomic bomb as “beautiful”.  When we understand what those calculations led to, it is hard to think of them as anything but extremely awful, horrible, devastating and fatal for the unfortunate people who were in the bomb’s path and radiation zone.

When assessing others, we need to focus more on a person’s morality, personality, values, and intelligence rather than exterior appearance.  Too often, we judge people by how they look.  The media’s obsession with physical attributes, has caused many, young girls especially, to have a warped idea of what they should look like.  That has caused some to have self-loathing that has led to such negative feelings of insecurity and body hatred that many have committed suicide.  So-called “beautiful people” who are judged by their looks, can also have a hard time feeling loved for their internal attributes.

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornments, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes.  Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.” 1 Peter 3:3-4.