in a rush to finish my required readings i was cramming them during Ec114 this morning. While reading Chapter 5 of Radcliffe's "What does it mean to be a Christian?" it dawned on me it was talking about the body, our human body.
In the course of his discussion the one thing that resonated so much in me was the topic of grace and beauty. And allow me to quote.
Grace makes us graceful. Eastern Christians sometimes insist that grace can even make us beautiful. This might be a new selling point for Christianity! Grace forms our faces to smile. Dom Enzo Bianchi, Prior of the monastery of Bose, wrote that ' Personally I am convinced that the spiritual life has a deep effect on the physical appearance of a person, on their face. The Greek tradition talks of spiritually mature monks as the kalogeroi, the beautiful old men. Yes the dimension of beauty is part of the synergy between grace and nature.'
So the notion of true beauty not being skin deep is true. Glorious, shining, awe-inspiring beauty resides in only those who are comfortable in accepting grace. The kind of beauty used to describe Helen of Troy, is not the stuff of legends. It is possible in the real life only through an effective synergy between our ability to love God and ourselves.
The next time I chance upon a cover of Vogue or Seventeen, and wonder why my body isn't as perfect as Giselle Budchen or Heidi Klum, I will stop my thoughts in their tracks and remind myself that this is not a gracious acceptance of God's love. He made me as I am, with whatever faults I think my body or self has. But in his eyes I am glorious. In his eyes I am awe-inspiring. In his eyes i am beautiful. In his eyes I am far better than Helen of Troy, and could even perhaps launch a million more ships than she has. In his eyes, the simplicity and limited-ness I see in myself withers away to reveal a treasure that is far more important than anyone could imagine.
I am beautiful. What a message for me today.
2 comments:
wow. this is lovely sab. thank you for sharing this with me. i love your insights these days. :)
hahaha remember those days where we'd criticize how we'd look. how fat we felt. how insignificant. how we arent loved enough. and i remember you telling me that as women our battles are inward, as opposed to the evident outward manifestation of masculine anger. i was feeling that way on the day i wrote this blog. that i wasnt pretty enough. that i wasnt enough simply. but this changed my mind. :) hope it did yours.
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