Webster defines beauty as “the
quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to
the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.”
We’ve all seen it! You go for a family ride out of town on a
Sunday afternoon (at least we used to do that when the family was younger) and
as you drive through the countryside you are simply amazed at the beauty you
can see in the land around you. We have
some pretty dry and arid areas where I now live in southeast Colorado, but
during certain times of the season you would be amazed as the prairie starts to
bloom and come alive with such a beauty that it’s almost unbelievable.
And there are times when we would
take a drive to the mountains (it is only about an hour or two away) and you
could watch the aspens changing color.
If you have never seen such a site it is really something to
behold. And there are times when a trip
to the coast (either the west or the east, it doesn’t really matter) could make
the hair stand up on the back of your neck it was such an enthralling experience.
Within the many years of my life I
have had the privilege of traveling to some of the most breath-taking locations
around the world. And, even allowing for
the trashy conditions that some humans have created within their environments,
the locations themselves were truly a magnificent creation of beauty. Yet having seen all these different places
and understanding that there are an untold number of other locations that I
have yet to visit, the most amazing things of beauty that I have ever
experienced are HUMANS!
Now I’m not referring to the outer
beauty that some humans possess. Although
we would have to admit that there are some very attractive people in the
world. Some have come by this “beauty”
naturally (at least SOME), others have paid small (or in some cases large)
fortunes to have the “beauty” that they possess. Some women can spend hours and hundreds of
dollars to get that “natural” look! By
means of various cosmetics today a person considered rather “ordinary” in
appearance can become a truly stunning beauty!
The revenues earned from the cosmetic industry (in the United States
alone) exceeded $62 BILLION in 2016.
Obviously beauty comes at a GREAT cost for many! Add to that the multi-billion cosmetic
surgery industry and you can see the obsession that people have all over the
world with physically staying
young and looking beautiful.
The world itself has a saying: “Beauty
is in the eye of the beholder.”
According to The Phrase Finder (phrases.org.uk) this literally means “the
perception of beauty is subjective.” The
following comments are quoted from that same source as to the origin of the
phrase. “This saying first appeared in
the 3rd century BC in Greek.
It didn’t appear in its current form in print until the 19th
century, but in the meantime there were various written forms that expressed
much the same thought. In 1588, the
English dramatist John Lyly, in his Euphues
and his England, wrote: “…as neere is Francie to Beautie, as the pricke to
the Rose, as the stalke to the rynde, as the earth to the roote.” Shakespeare expressed a similar sentiment in Love’s Labours Lost, 1588: “Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,
Needs not the painted flourish of your praise: Beauty is bought by judgment of
the eye, Not utter’d by base sale of chapmen’s tongues.” Benjamin Franklin, in Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1741, wrote: “Beauty, like supreme
dominion Is but supported by opinion.”
David Hume’s Essays, Moral and
Political, 1742, include: “Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which
contemplates them.” The person who is
widely credited with coining the saying in its current form is Margaret Wolfe
Hungerford (nee Hamilton), who wrote many books, often under the pseudonym of ‘The
Duche’. In Molly Bawn, 1878, there’s a line “Beauty is in the eye of the
beholder”, which is the earliest citation found for that expression in print.”
However, my discussion wants to
relate more to a different saying: “Beauty is only skin deep.” This expression is used to mean external
attractiveness (beauty) has no real relation to goodness or essential quality. This maxim is first stated by Sir Thomas
Overbury in his poem “A Wife” (1613): “All
the carnall beauty of my wife is but skin-deep.” Actually the essence of the saying goes much
further back in history than those words penned by Sir Overbury. The statement was made that Christian wives
are urged to give primary attention, not to external adornment, but to “the
secret person of the heart” “which is of greater value in the eyes of God.” [1
Pe 3:3,4]
Yes, this “person” that God sees in
our hearts, our inner most being, the true essence of who we are, that is
the person we want to learn to see. The
person who has struggled, perhaps their entire life, against poverty, hatred,
violence or corruption of one form or another and wants to change. We should see this person who has
struggled to become a “better person” in harmony with what is in their
hearts. Those having a real desire only
to be viewed by others as a potential friend and NOT the person who is only seen by circumstances, their
color, their nationality or their background.
We’re only human --- so it is a
constant struggle for us to view others that way. However, if we can create in ourselves the
desire (and the ability) to view others the way God views them, both THEIR circumstances and OURS will be greatly improved
for the better. Don’t look at what they
are --- look at what they COULD be.
And maybe they will have the kindness to do the same for us!
THOUGHTFUL GEM
"Have you noticed: In times of disaster people can be very loving.
Practice "disaster mode" EVERY day!"
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