Beautiful Feet
June 17, 2011
Last night my mom gave me a copy of Hannah Farver’s new book Uncompromising: A Heart Claimed by a Radical Love. It was Providential because I am going to be using this book for my students this fall. I hadn’t even read it yet, but it got such great reviews I decided to go for it. It’s a difficult task to find a gospel-centered book for teen girls. Most books, in an attempt to steer girls toward Christianity, end up steering them down a steep slope of rules with no heart behind obedience. After two years of teaching from a book that does not radiate and center itself in the gospel, I’ve come to realize that well-meaning books written by well-meaning Christian women aren’t always transforming. If anything, they can be thought provoking but short lived. This is probably because as Christians we view ‘Christianity’ as the goal instead of Christ. So Uncompromising…here we go.
I haven’t made it very far in the book, but I loved the way Hannah Farver is guiding her readers to see that we long after inferior things. She starts with beauty. I blog a lot about beauty on here because it’s so much a part of the culture, including church culture. We need to redeem beauty, but the task seems confusing because our own soul mirrors are fogged by the cultural steam. Most of us wrestle back and forth with how much or how little to emphasize beauty.
I’m continually amazed (which is a good thing but also a shame because I keep starting back at square one) that when we focus on Jesus and knowing Him and growing to love Him, many of our struggles fade. When we do this, it’s not that we suddenly have to be okay wearing burlap sacks and never combing our hair. Instead, our beauty focus is directed upon the gospel, which saturates the rest of our lives (including combing our hair). This morning as I thought about this, I thought of a question that I have heard in various forms from students–and in my own mind:
Does the Bible ever talk about beauty? We know Sarah and Rachel were beauties and that the Proverbs 31 woman dressed in a becoming way. We know we aren’t supposed to be focused too much on our outward appearance, and rather our inward appearance. But does it actually mention the word beauty? Then the verse came to mind:
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
Isaiah 52:7
Paul references this passage in Romans 10:15, about the gospel. This passage isn’t only for foreign missionaries. It’s for everyone who spreads the good news of Jesus. The more I do this, the more my preoccupation with worldly beauty fades away. Christ is working more and more in my heart to desire beautiful feet.
I am praising God for this absolutely fabulous post, Shelley! Such wonderful Truth
The Gospel is beautiful and it makes us beautiful as we live in Him. Teach it, girl!!!
“We need to redeem beauty, but the task seems confusing because our own soul mirrors are fogged by the cultural steam. Most of us wrestle back and forth with how much or how little to emphasize beauty.”
Shelley,
That’s very good – the idea that beauty is good, created by God, and that all true beauty reflects something of the creator. I think this applies to our bodies, yes, but also to our homes and our surroundings, our gardens, our food, our music – everything. I really like your metaphor of our soul mirrors being fogged. We get confused about how much time and energy to devote to these things because we get so many mixed and powerful messages, not only about how we look but about how our houses, food, everything should be. We focus on those things and get lost in a bog of styles and choices, instead of looking at HIM and seeing true beauty and then being able to cultivate it in ourselves and our surroundings. It is not a copying, though, but a living out of his reflection when our soul mirrors get wiped clear by the work of the word in our lives.
Well said, Beth! I think what makes peoples homes interesting is when you can tell they cultivated their own style and didn’t decorate solely based on what was culturally popular at the time. When people develop beauty based on how God created them, it appears to me to be an outlet to express God’s creativity in making us with the ability to create diversely.