True Beauty

This past weekend I had two experiences that I know God meant just for me—to encourage me, to draw me to Himself, and to ultimately share with others. Reader warning—this entry is NOT PC! I am a woman in every sense of the word and I am going to express my true beliefs about womanhood! You see, as a woman, I so easily get caught up in the anxieties that come from wanting to look beautiful on the outside. Can I get an amen from any other woman reading this?? Frankly, there have been moments in my life where this consumed my thoughts. I have noticed that happening again, as of late. My focus on Jesus Christ has been divided, and my quiet time surface and obligatory. I have been praying that God would speak to my heart again, and that I would have some moments of true worship and communion with Him. This has been my prayer partly because I am beginning a college women’s Bible study in 2 days and I haven’t felt the usual anointing and fire in my gut. A new friend and I are going to teach the book of Ephesians to a group of college gals at Luther. I have always loved the book of Ephesians, and recently, have come to love chapter 1 in particular. I’ve read the epistle several times in the last 2 weeks, but there was no fresh word and I was longing for one! Well, this weekend, He put a fire in my gut again and gave me a fresh word. I love it when He does that.


You see, within the opening verses of this epistle of Paul, God’s Truth about who I am in Christ is revealed in such beautiful and almost poetic language. It is a true description of the Bride of Christ—His Church. I love it that we are His bride. As a female, I really get into that analogy! When I think of a bride, I picture a radiant woman in white, lots of flowers, lots of satin and tulle, and sheer beauty. Guess what? That is supposed to be me, and anyone else who is a believer in Christ. We are beautiful. Paul lays that out clearly in Ephesians 1. If you are familiar with the passage, you might be saying---beauty? Where are you getting that??

Well, it goes back to what I said in the opening paragraph. As a woman, I want to feel beautiful. What goes along with feeling beautiful? When have I felt the most beautiful in my life? These words come to mind: Belonging. Security. Acceptance. Purity. Blessing. Joy. When I know I belong, am secure and accepted, I feel beautiful. When I know I am pure and white as the beautiful hills of snow just outside my window—I feel beautiful. When I am showered with gifts—unexpectedly and for nothing I have done, I feel especially beautiful. When my husband looks at me with tenderness in his eyes and tells me that he loves me……you get the idea.

Yesterday, I received a package in the mail from my Dad. I am 35 years old and my dad sent me a gift—just because I am his daughter. He sent me a box of Godiva Dark Chocolate Truffles. These are my absolute favorite and he knows it. When I opened the box and saw the little note he wrote on it, my middle-aged heart felt 20 years younger. It was reminiscent of how I felt when I married Allen. Can it also be reminiscent of some of my quiet moments with my Savior, Jesus Christ? ABSOLUTELY! It is a deep emotion that only a woman can feel. I know that this is extremely un-PC but I don’t care. I believe God created man and woman differently, and men just don’t understand this like women do. So, if you are a male and reading this, sorry! As I took out that first truffle and began to eat it (Yum!), I knew that my daddy loves me and was thinking about me. I knew that I was accepted—because I am his daughter. I knew that I was beautiful, and I was secure in that. That simple act of love made my week! It brought back many memories of our daddy/daughter dinners, trips to the mall (Yes!), ice cream sundaes, and many other special times when my dad was parenting like his Heavenly Father parents. I always knew I was beautiful in my daddy’s eyes. Yesterday’s gift reminded me that I still am.

And then, today we ended up at the Mall of America. I had told Caroline that I would take her to the American Girl store located there. She and I had talked about getting a matching outfit of some kind that she and her doll Emma could wear. She decided she wanted matching pajamas. So, we bought them and she couldn’t wait to get home and put them on. She took one of the fastest baths I’ve ever seen and then she dressed herself in the pjs and we both dressed Emma in hers. It was so fun! I felt like a 6 year old dressing up my dolls. I knew immediately that this was one of those times of mother/daughter bonding and that pictures must be taken to capture the moment. As I held the camera up to take the shot and I looked at my daughter through the viewfinder, I felt a searing of my soul and Spirit, and a deep sense of love for my beautiful child sitting before me. Caroline was radiant in EVERY since of the word. Was her hair perfect? No. Was she wearing make up? Heavens, no and not for many more years! Was she dressed to the 9’s? Uh, no. PJs. Was every physical blemish or scratch concealed in some way? No.

 

Not only was she beautiful on the outside (I know, a mother’s bias!), but her inner beauty was shining through. In that moment, Caroline was secure, content, joyful, and feminine. Childlike femininity just oozed out of her and flowed over onto me. It was a priceless time that I will never forget. If I can love my child with such a love, how much more does my heavenly Father love me. When He looks through His viewfinder and sees me smiling with the radiance of child-like faith and the purity that I have through His Son, I know that He feels, at an even deeper level, what I felt tonight. My mind cannot comprehend what God feels, but He gave me a taste of it. I was deeply moved and again, I felt beautiful--as a parent--a mom, a woman, a daughter of the King. I could not stop thanking Him.

Through these two experiences, God has reminded me that he created me FEMININE, beautiful and radiant. I am His daughter. I belong. I have an inheritance.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment — to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession — to the praise of his glory.”

We, as God’s bride (men and women of course) don’t posses only a few blessings. We possess EVERY SPIRITUAL blessing in Christ. Notice that the blessings are not material or monetary. They are spiritual. I get so disgusted with preachers who only talk about material wealth and prosperity. Do they not realize that all of that is not going to last? We are not leaving earth with that stuff. God wants to bless us with SO MUCH more than money and prosperity. He has given us every spiritual blessing!! EVERY SINGLE ONE. And, each one of these blessings is eternal. They will not end when we die. Think for a minute about spiritual blessings and what that means. He wants to bless that eternal part of you. Wow.

He chose us in Him BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. Have you ever really quieted yourself enough to ponder this truth? It blows my mind that God chose ME before spoke the world into existence. He chose us to be adopted as his children through Jesus because He wanted to! He didn’t just pick out the Israelites, he included us Gentiles! It was His pleasure to do so, just like it was my dad’s pleasure to send me my favorite box of chocolates. Okay, maybe not just like that—on a deeper level, but you get my meaning.

As Christ’s bride, I am PURE. All of my sins past, present, and future are forgiven and washed clean. I am redeemed! Christ’s church—His bride—is holy. I don’t have to try and prove myself, or make myself seem beautiful by my works. I don’t have to cover up my blemishes and scars. My faith in Jesus and His sacrifice wipes them away and does all the work that needs to be done. To me, that is FREEDOM!

God lavishes His grace on us. Try and create a visual for the verb lavishes. To me, this word means over-doing, pouring out in abundance, not holding anything back. Some synonyms are: extravagant, lush, heaping, abundant, sumptuous, copious, plentiful, bountiful. What a loving Father! Not only has he adopted us, but he lavishes more grace on us than we could possibly comprehend. In a material sense, if I had lavished things on Caroline today, I would have bought her the entire American Girl store and given her all of its contents. Get the picture?? No matter how much I mess up or demean His sacrifice through my unbelief, His grace is sufficient. Its more that sufficient. His grace outweighs my sin. My sin and yours cannot stack up to the height and depth of His grace.

And, if that wasn’t enough, when I believed on Jesus Christ, God the Father marked me as His own. In the spiritual realm, I have a mark on me—the Holy Spirit. I truly believe that all the angels, demons, and any other beings that exist in that realm know I am His child. I am His radiant bride. They see my beauty! My enemy knows I am beautiful. That is why he tries to convince me that I’m not. He does not want me to get this concept. He does not want me to be free. I will say it again, Satan knows you are beautiful.

So, the question comes to me: “Why can’t I see it in myself?”

And that my friends is where the rubber meets the road. The reason I fall into insecure and self-loathing thoughts is because I am not believing the Truth. It all boils down to faith!!!! When I am consumed with my physical appearance and believing that I am not beautiful, then I am believing a lie rather than the truth expressed in Ephesians 1. I am depriving myself of the spiritual blessings that he has for me and I am essentially devaluing what He has done for me.

Here is the fact of the matter. If you are in Christ; if He is your Savior and you are following Him, then you are beautiful. It is a fact. Not only are you beautiful---you are RADIANT. No ifs, no ands, no buts.


Will you choose to believe it?




The broken, weary and poor
Finding...You are the cure
The weak and dying, glorifying, You in it all...

It’s the song of the beautiful, Jesus Loves Me...
It’s the song of the beautiful, Jesus Saved Me...
The song of the redeemed, the echoes of those made free,
It’s the song of the beautiful, Jesus Loves Me...

The fallen back on their feet
The fatherless now complete...
The innocent suffering, rising from wounding, to find...You were there all along!

It’s the song of the beautiful, Jesus Loves Me...
It’s the song of the beautiful, Jesus Saved Me...
The song of the redeemed, the echoes of those made free -
It’s the song of the beautiful, Jesus Loves Me...

Oh how He loves me
Oh how He loves me
Oh how He love me...
The broken, the beautiful....

The prodigal running home...
The widow never alone...
The one who is waiting, rising and singing, “You...Jesus, You Are My All!”

Written by Christy Nockels
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