As I was photographing some tulips toward the end of their season, I spotted this one particular bloom. It’s showing the signs of the “seasons” and its pedals are not what they used to be.
Now don’t ask me what happened in my head but it was almost immediately filled with a “poem.” And, poems are not my norm but we’ll leave the how it happened to another time.
Back to “beauty.” Our culture is obsessed with its search for this vapor we call beauty. It would be an astounding dollar amount to know what is spent in pursuit of the uncatchable!
I regularly pass a business whose name is the “Anti-Aging Clinic”! That truly has to be one of the oxymorons of our day! Even as amazing is the number of cars parked there, in pursuit of something which will never be found in a jar or crème!
As a photographer, it is a given that if you want to be known as a great photographer, photograph beautiful (here’s our word again!) people. When your photographic work is examined (by worldly standards), all will declare you are indeed a great photographer for the images are “beautiful”!
To combat the blatant vanity of this thinking we try on statements like, “Beauty is only in the eye of the beholder,” or “Beauty is only skin deep.”
The truth is that beauty is neither in the eye, nor in the skin!
A wonderful truth of the Word of God found in Proverbs 31.30 says,
30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.
This is wisdom that is most applicable to “both” men and women!
Just a word on what it means to “fear the Lord.” First and foremost, this is not terror. It’s an attitude of our heart I like to paraphrase as “the awesome, reverential, trustful, obedience” of the Lord. Those who “fear the Lord” have put Him first.
Let me put that another way, they’ve been captivated by the Lord’s beauty! The psalmist writes, Ps 96:4–6.
4 For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. 6 Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.
True beauty is when we’ve been captivated by the Lord’s beauty and live out our lives for His glory.
So, back to the tulip and that poem. When I looked at this “late in season” tulip, I thought to myself, wow, I’ll bet this bloom was really spectacular sometime back. But, no, it’s spectacular right now. This bloom is serving the Lord as the Lord designed, through all its seasons, some of which might catch our (vain) eyes more.
And, the poem flowed . . .
When the season is past, know well, that if you served the Lord with your fleeting glory, you have served (beautifully and) well.
This bloom had done it all, and even now was serving the Lord with awesome, reverential, trustful, obedience. There can be no greater beauty!
Take time to reassess your concept of what is truly beautiful, it’s way more than skin deep! Set a course for true beauty like you find in Ps27.4.
4 One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord And to meditate in His temple.
Beauty is reality. Beauty is truth. Beauty is the Lord, and, it’s in our lives as we serve Him, whatever the season!
If you find time for a video exposing the superficiality of our cultures thinking, check out this one: http://bit.ly/w8BKg
