Thursdays Thoughts

We gravitate toward beauty, longing both to be beautiful and to surround ourselves with beautiful things. Beauty points us God-ward in ways we can't explain. The Sistine Chapel calls forth a yearning for the Eternal Source of beauty, just as a field of wildflowers or spring blooms can evoke praise. We humans thirst for beauty and ache at the golf between hints of what we experience here and the dazzling reality that waits somewhere past the edges of the world.

Leigh Mcleroy

 

 

Although I strived to make myself beautiful a big chunk of my life, I still decidedly feel less than lovely most days.  Less than the woman next to me, or the woman looking back at me in the mirror. Mirror, mirror on the wall , who's the fairest of them all?  Why do I wish for another woman's hips, or straight hair or fill in the blank          ?  And why when somebody gives me praise do I immediately look at my flaws and point them out? Because I'm not sure , not sure that I can trust my own eyes, or someone elses for that matter.  I know far to well the imperfections that I am hiding. What changed from my early childhood when people told me I was cute or had beautiful eyes?
 It is no wonder that children loved the lap of Jesus and flocked to his praise of them.
"God in flesh would have celebrated each little ones unique glories and perfectly reflected them back. And they would have undoubtedly believed him. ."
" It's no wonder the disciples tried to shoo the children away . They were too big for the lap they wished might rest in and too ashamed to admit they longed for his affirming words ."

"True beauty isn't manufactured . It's reflected.Every glimpse of true beauty-his beauty-that comes in the meantime will whisper his name"
"Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savor life and to dream of the future. That is why the beauty of created things can never fully satisfy. It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God. Pope John Paul II.
"But in Jesus , man has seen , touched , and handled the Beautiful One and not only lived to tell but found promise of eternal life and unending beauty. He is beauty. And he alone makes us beautiful. Nothing less will ever be enough."Leigh Mcleroy

Listen , O daughter , consider and give ear: Forget your people and your fathers house. The king is enthralled by your beauty;Honor him, for he is the Lord. Psalm 45:10-11
Did you catch that? The king is enthralled by your beauty. Wrap your head around that , let it sink in. The king is enthralled by your beauty, he really is.