Beauty and the Beast

“I know well how beautiful a woman you are…”

So Abram was afraid because of beauty. This is a strange but ancient theme. I remember reading earlier in Genesis how, “the Sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful and they married…”. In the ancient world, this theme is not even unique to scripture.

So I’m wondering what’s wrapped up in this pursuit of beauty – the idea that it (beauty) can be caught and collected like so many dried flowers – or even more fundamentally; that beauty can be owned. Abram knew that Pharaoh would claim ownership of the beauty. He knew he was helpless to stop it.

On a certain level, in the cool of this morning, the whole thing seems preposterous. That so much energy and resources would be devoted to capturing beauty. But I look around and behold – I am a man that seeks beauty living amongst a people who seek beauty. And what’s more, together we seek it in ever more intense doses.

Let’s face it, these days even authentic beauty needs to be photo-shopped. I put hot sauce on my 3 alarm chili because the experience is still not intense enough. What is it that I am looking for???

Earlier, in a moment of personal lucidity, I saw that the outflow of my self-regard is manifest in my actions. OK, as I write that it sounds obvious. Yet, how troubling and yet hopeful it strikes me today. I have done such evil wanting to own beauty yet, in renewed essence, I realize everything I ever really wanted was within me waiting to be revealed as it is shared with others.

It is written, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of them who bring good news”. Come Lord Jesus.