What is True Beauty?

Beauty (originally written May 27, 2009)

Beauty is not characterized

by the efforts of my appearance,

but was borne

upon two wooden beams and through three piercing nails.

 

With each drive of a nail

faces line up in the mind of the Savior, one after another,

each with a mask of his own:

deception, shame, pride.

 

With each tear being shed

and every cry screaming from the cross,

women fall into the arms of men,

hoping to find true love and longing to hear those words:

“You are beautiful.”

 

With each dig from the thorns

and tearing of flesh,

men seek fortune and fame,

believing that power can only be obtained

through ambitions and violence.

 

“It is finished.”

The world with its

tainted love and enticing roads to death

stands still.

 

Divine blood pours over

the lost and broken,

vain and deceptive,

young and aged.

 

It penetrates every evil,

wipes off each mask,

exposes truth

and defines true love.

 

This beauty can only be found

through such brokenness,

through such sacrifice,

with the invitation of accepting it for myself.

 

Beauty is the power of Your love

that flows through my veins

and enraptures all of who You are

in me.

© Lauren Heiligenthal