Beauty and Love

I am not always a big fan of paraphrasing The Bible but every so often I read passages from “The Message” which is a paraphrase, that strike my fancy.

Take how the 23rd Psalm is rendered just before it ends.

Your beauty and love chase after me
every day of my life.

This is most often rendered like this:

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me
all the days of my life,

I certainly love the words ‘goodness’ and ‘mercy’ and they are meaningful. As I look at the words ‘your beauty and your love,’ I am struck in different ways.

We don’t often use the word ‘beautiful’ in reference to God. There is a famous and beloved hymn entitled, “Beautiful Savior,” but we rarely refer to God as beautiful. We talk about beautiful people and the beauty of creation, but rarely do we speak of a beautiful God.

Every year “People” has a survey of the most beautiful people of the year. They are making reference to people who are incredibly attractive, very good looking, etc. One thing we never learn, however, is what the hearts of these people are like. They are very attractive, but do they have beautiful hearts-----hearts that are open to loving others and being loved by others.

Outward beauty is great but it doesn’t always tell us what is happening inside a person.

I often think that real beauty can be seen in a person’s eyes. It is said that the eyes are the pathway to the soul and often you can look into a person’s eyes and be captured by immense beauty that captures one’s soul.

I somehow think God is like this. There are times I look into the eyes of people and come face to face with the heart of God and there is such beauty. It is the beauty of great kindness and tenderness.

And then there is love. God’s love is beyond our ability to even comprehend. One need only read and embrace the story of Christ and one begins to comprehend, even in a small way, God’s love.

And God’s beauty and love CHASE us. Imagine that. This, for me, is something to truly ponder.