Is this picture to the left from the Garden of Eden? It sure looks like it could be, doesn’t it? So lovely! But no, it’s not, for the Garden of Eden was even more beautiful! Heaven as well is even more gorgeous than all the beauty we enjoy today on earth!
God created beauty for many reasons.
First, our Creator Himself is awesomely, limitlessly, literally breathtakingly beautiful, so the beauty He creates is just a reflection of His awe-striking, heart-stopping, mind-blowing beauty.
The prophet Moses experienced the power of God’s radiantly beautiful glory on Mount Sinai: When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. - Exodus 34:29-30 (NIV)
With our limited eyesight, we cannot look on God’s awesome beauty and glory, which is why He does not allow us in our earthly bodies to see Him. However, God would speak to Moses “face to face” and thus some of His glorious, radiant beauty would reflect on Moses’ face! The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. – Exodus 33:11(a)
Jesus Christ, the “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) amazed his three apostles who had the honor of witnessing his awesome transfiguration - from his earthly body to his eternal form, and back:
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. – Matthew 17:1-3 (NIV)
Jesus Christ made it clear that he is their and our friend too, if they and we obey him (John 15:13-14). Friendship is a beautiful gift that God created too! Friendship with God is the most beautiful relationship and gift ever! My favorite song I learned as a new Believer in Jesus is What a Friend we have in Jesus. Listen to it yourself here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XRmGEbH0qs and memorize these words to be a warm reminder to you.
Jesus Christ did go through a period of time when he temporarily gave up his beauty for us - to save us from our sins. The punishment that our holy, perfect and just God required, that brought us peace with Him, was on Jesus, who became the perfect "lamb" sacrificed for us, for our sins. By His wounds we are healed by believing in Jesus.This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 53. Please read and meditate on this prophecy in the Bible that God gave to prophet Isaiah, which Jesus Christ fulfills for you and me!
Another reason God created beauty is for His pleasure, as well as our pleasure. Beauty is pleasing to our eyes and our hearts. Since we have been made in His image (Genesis 1:26-27), we receive pleasure from admiring God’s beautiful creation. Since we have been made in His image, we also enjoy making ourselves, as well as our environment, beautiful too.
Now, you might be saying to yourself, “I’m not beautiful. I don’t have the gift of creating beauty around me or designing beautiful things. What is wrong with me?”
There is nothing wrong with you my dear, beautiful friend. The issue is that you are believing the lies of our enemy, Satan. Please don’t listen to him anymore. Our enemy the devil doesn’t want you to know how beautiful you are to your loving Creator and Heavenly Father.
Satan is jealous of your beauty for he has had emnity toward women since he decieved Eve in the Garden with a lie. He knows that the One who was born of a woman and will come again, Jesus, is that seed that will crush his head. He wants to destroy you but God wants to give you life and hope for now and eternity through your beautiful redeemer, Jesus, whom God provided for you to choose to love.
For God so loved the world that He sent Jesus for you to believe in so to save you from Satan's lies. Satan doesn’t want you to grow in talents that you can use to make your environment beautiful. He wants to devour/destroy God’s beautiful creation – you (1 Peter 5:8)! So, instead of believing in Satan’s lies, trust in God’s Word-the only truth!
God inspired King David to write what every human should to take to heart. This passage shows how special and beautiful we individually are to our Maker!
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you. – Psalm 139:14-18 (NIV)
God made us fearfully and wonderfully, each one of us! His idea of beauty, by the way, focuses on our heart (our core being), not our shell (body). As God told prophet Samuel:
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." - 1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)
Now, for those who take pride in your outward beauty, remember that pride goes before a fall (Proverbs 16:18). Two very important proverbs we always need to remember are the following:
Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion. – Proverbs 11:22 (NIV)
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. – Proverbs 31:30 (NIV)
Make sure to work on the beauty that God focuses on, which includes fearing Him and having discretion, and having a beautiful heart!
As we admire God’s beautiful creation all around us, take care of the beauty God has given us, and use the creative talents He gave us to create beauty, let us always seek first the beauty of our Creator. As God inspired King David to pray:
One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. – Psalm 27:4 (NIV)
May God bless you, my dear sister, with the most beautiful gift in God’s beautiful creation – a precious two-way relationship with our beautiful Creator God and Father through Jesus, His only begotten Son He sent to redeem you from Satan's lies!
If you have any questions, prayer requests, or comments, please feel free to let me know. Praying for you!