Beauty and the Beast

I am so thankful for the cross.

My heart has been heavy for so many reasons.

People I know and love going through marital turmoil.

People I know and love dealing with heavy issues in their home.

Loved ones wrestling with cancer. 

My own son Isaac and the constant struggles of a boy becoming a man, but still a boy in his brain.

Life is hard.

I reflect on you Jesus and the fact that your life was hard too (and you are God!)

I choose to look up to you.

I read this morning the definition of the word "feeble."

As one of the Psalms I read (paraphrase) said -I am weak and feeble but you (God) are strong and mighty.

Feeble means lacking physical strength especially as a result of age or illness. Or, feeble can also mean lacking strength of character.

I confessed both! I am feeble LORD, both in my physical and character. I need you daily!

LORD I lack strength and energy due to my inability to handle all the curve balls life throws my way. I also dear LORD lack the strength of character. I am NOT at all like you Jesus, which is why I am thankful for the imputed righteousness and thankful for the impartation of the gift of the Holy Spirit. "Christ in me, the hope of glory" not character and quality in myself that is the hope of glory. That would be nonsense. I am small you are big and Mighty Oh God!

All of this leads up to my continually going back to the Cross.

Easter is just around the corner and I enjoy "email devotionals" that are sent to my inbox weekly to remind me of 1 or more elements of the Passion week. Whether the author points out the prophecies Jesus fulfilled, or redirects our gaze to the Old Testament -all these images point to Christ. I find all of these readings are beautiful soul prep to ready my heart for Easter. I also enjoy listening to podcasts (Bible teachings)

Today I listened to an amazing teaching from Dr. Timothy Keller from Isaiah 52:13-53:12.
Our suffering Savior. Jesus the Servant-King. 

It is always difficult to think about and wrap my mind around the brutality of the Cross.

Jesus was marred more than a man. Dr. Keller mentioned it was so grotesque (what Jesus' body looked like) it could literally make someone vomit.

This is our LORD on the Cross.

We sing hymns like "All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, Twas God that made them all"

Our LORD Jesus, was the same God who formed Yellowstone, Yosemite, daisies, irises, succulents, ladybugs, butterflies, the ocean and the Grand Canyon.  God knows all about beauty. In fact, we all are trying to get back to the Garden of Eden. All humans are trying to get back to beauty and wholeness (shalom) with God. (Christians know this, non-believers fixate on "fake" or alternative forms of beauty and temporary peace) 

Jesus was there at Genesis 1:1 and yet we see Him here in Isaiah 52 and 53 marred so terribly He was barely recognizable as a human at all.

Dr. Timothy Keller often quotes literature and this message (teaching) was no different. He reminds us of the story of Beauty and the Beast. 
I immediately jumped ahead in my mind and thought, "OK Pastor. I know where you are going. Christ is the Beauty and I am the Beast." God is all together lovely, and we humans are so jacked up and beastly.

True and true.

However, this is not what Dr. Keller said. 

He said (paraphrase), in the story of Beauty and the Beast, the woman kissed the beast and the curse was broken. With God's rescue plan, Calvary is different.

Jesus BECAME the beast. 

He become marred beyond the image of a man. 

Grotesque & horrific. 

Jesus became sin on that Cross and He became the beast so we could become His beauty/His beloved.

This analogy moved me so deeply I began to sob and shake.

Our LORD Jesus became the ugly beast of "sin" and shame to conquer death and the eternal consequences of sin once and for all.

I have been trying to close my eyes and imagine the nail in His beautifully calloused carpenter's hand. I picture the soldiers extending His hand and the nail being hammered in. 

I remind myself. 

I remember. 

It is good for us to see the Cross with new eyes. That is what Dr. Keller's message from Isaiah 52 and 53 did for me. I pictured a disfigured man, marred, bloodied and "beast like" on the Cross and it refreshed my love and devotion to Him.

 He did it for us. 

There was no beauty in Him. He was altogether ordinary- Jesus from Nazareth. He put on flesh and became ordinary- yet He was still fully God.

We should be baffled by this constantly.

My dear friend mentioned a book to me that reminds us all to "preach the Gospel" to ourselves daily. The Gospel isn't just for non-believers. The Gospel isn't just for a Harvest crusade, the Mission field, or to share with a stranger. The Gospel and Good-Friday isn't just for the Easter season. The Gospel is for each of us and we need to remember every single day.

Give us this day our daily bread. 

We must feast on the Gospel daily and chew on it. We need Christ's love to make us beautiful. There is no other way.

As a woman, I often think of the Proverbs 31 lady. I desire to be like her. I may not relate to all her activities, but as a woman, I desire to be beautiful and live with honor like she did sharing God's love to others.

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing.

I was looking outside at our winter blooming camellias the other morning. I prayed with my eyes open "Lord make my soul beautiful like this Camellia." This type of beauty only comes from Christ's life lived through my lips, my thoughts, my actions, my work, my leisure, my prayers, my Bible reading, my motherhood, my marriage and in every aspect of the wonderful or mundane things of life. My husband said the other day "All of life should be a devotion" I liked that!

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing (or it fades) but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Christ's beauty in a man or woman never fades. When we die and wither (like all human bodies do) our souls will be either beastly (unredeemed) or beautiful (covered and saturated with the blood of Jesus).

May your heart be encouraged today as you ask God to help you meditate on the horror of the Cross and the beauty of redemption. His suffering made Him "beast-like" so He can create in you a clean and beautiful soul. Hallelujah! What a savior!