:. beauty .:

"May the beauty of the Lord our God rest upon us."

Psalm 90:17

This verse jumped out at me the other day, and I can't stop thinking about it. What is beauty, anyway? And what does it look like to have the beauty of our GOD covering us?

Obviously, our culture has a twisted view of beauty. How many women are 5'8" and only weigh 102? How many men carry around a six-pack (that doesn't say 'Bud Light')?

We buy rogaine to turn back baldness, slim-fast to fight the battle of the bulge, cosmetics by the gallon, and don't forget the Spanx, ladies!

In other eras, and other cultures, curves have been/are actually 'in'. (Why, oh, why couldn't I have been born when Botticelli was painting?!?!)

So, what does God's 'beauty' look like?

To get an idea of that, first consider what God Himself looks like: holy, perfect, eternal. He is Life and Truth and Love. He is Comforter, Father and Savior.

To be covered in His beauty would be to know peace; to be filled with love; to experience joy. His beauty resting on us would soften our hard hearts; it would turn our eyes away from self; it would enable us to hear the cries of the wounded.

His beauty is everlasting. His beauty isn't subject to the world's shifting standards.

I think of Moses, who spoke to God face-to-face "as a man speaks with his friend". He always came away from those conversations literally glowing.

The beauty of our God resting on us would make us different.