Beauty always appeals to the human heart. The Lord has given us
marvelous visions of beauty in nature, and all around us we see the
perfection of His creatorial powers. The beauty of the fragrant
rose, the loveliness of the violets, and the purity of the lily are
ever a source of delight to gaze upon.
However, the beauty of nature is fading and subject to decay. So
is human loveliness, which will sooner or later pass away. Alas,
no beauty is permanent in this changing scene among the sons of
men. But the beauty which surpasses all others is the excelling
beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. The psalmist expresses ardently
in Psalm 27: 4,
“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; 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 inquire in his temple.” May we say
in the language of the hymn writer:
One thing, my Father only one
My heart desires of Thee—
To know Thy well-beloved Son,
And all His beauty see.
The Holy Spirit delights to bring before our spiritual gaze glimpses of
the beauty of the Lord Jesus. There is the beauty of His character. The
Lord of glory is the only One who ever possessed a character unstained
by sin. His moral beauty could not be hid, and shines out so
brightly in His humanity, in His Deity and in His written Word. How
rich the character He bears exalted on the throne in whom all glories
shine.
There is the beauty of His walk. The pathway of our blessed Lord would
we retrace with adoring hearts. Truly, it was one of unsullied
holiness, a perfect path of purest grace unblemished and
complete. His perfect obedience to accomplish the Father’s will
was displayed throughout His pathway to the cross. And the beauty
of His love was displayed in His holy walk and seen in all its fulness
in His sacrifice on the cross. His pathway gloriously ended with
His resurrection and ascension back to His heavenly Father.
There is the beauty of His words. Many are the words which flowed
from His blessed lips and today as in every generation since His
fragrant words were first heard, they have brought to countless
multitudes comfort, joy and peace. The psalmist exclaimed, “Thou
art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips:
therefore God hath blessed thee for ever,” Ps. 45:2.
Truly these are words of secret power in hours of grief and loneliness
to kindle thoughts of praise! The two disciples, at the end of
the Emmaus journey, said one to the other, “did not our hearts burn
within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to
us the scriptures?”, Luke 24:32. Even His enemies had to confess, “Never man spake like this man,” John 7:46.
What a joy it is to be occupied with the beauty of the Lord. We
remember well the time in our life when the Lord of glory was nothing
to us, and when we were like the people whom the prophet Isaiah
describes in 53:2 who saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. He is now the “chiefest among ten thousand,” Song 5:10.
We are reminded in the Song of Solomon of the supreme beauty of the
Lord, and the daughters of Jerusalem challenge the bride concerning her
Beloved, “What is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost
so charge us?”, v.9.
So the bride enumerates the loveliness of her Beloved and exclaims, “My
beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand . . . yea,
he is altogether lovely,” vv. 10, 16. Surely this is the language of every lover of the Lord Jesus Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom of our hearts:
Thou glorious Bridegroom of our hearts,
Thy present smile a heaven imparts;
O lift the veil, if veil there be;
Let every saint Thy beauty see.
Lastly, there is the transforming beauty of the Lord. As we
contemplate His beauty we shall be transformed into His likeness in
some measure: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as by the Spirit of the Lord,” 2 Cor. 3:18.
What will it be to be completely transformed into the image of the Lord
of glory when we shall see Him as He is, and the promise of the prophet
shall be fulfilled, “Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty,” Is. 33:17.
The beauty of the face will perhaps win admiration, but only the beauty
of a heart full of Christ can attract others. Physical loveliness
will fade and decay, but the beauty of the Lord reflected in the soul
is eternal. May we appreciate more the beauty of our Lord as we
are occupied with Him until faith shall give place to sight and we
shall see His face. May we say again with the hymn writer:
O fix our earnest gaze
So wholly Lord, on Thee,
That with Thy beauty occupied,
We elsewhere none may see.