Day Eight: BEAUTY LOST


For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then [in heaven] face to face.
Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
—1 CORINTHIANS 13:12

Today we see with clouded vision and long for a time when our eyes will be opened and paradise entered into again.

Our efforts to be beautiful will always be somewhat frustrated on earth. We will never reach a moment when we feel the completion of beauty and know ourselves to be finally, forever, beautiful. The longing we feel for beauty will always be kindled, just as a longing for rest is always with us. Beauty whets our appetite for its final fulfillment.

When you are frustrated with your appearance, remember it is not because your body or beauty lacks something. It is because the world lacks something. The quest for perfection isn’t a vain desire but a shadow of a greater desire, the first desire—the desire to be unashamed before God and man, to reflect completely the love of the Creator as He beholds us.

Ask: Help me to gracefully accept this desire that will never be fully satisfied on earth.

Believe: Someday God’s perfect beauty will be made complete in me.

OceanofPDF.com