beauty{full}: the secret

It's our second to last day with this topic, and I think I've finally figured out the secret to seeing the beautiful in everything, yes, and even the secret to being full of beauty ourselves. The funny thing is that it was right in front of my face all along, but this morning as I lay awake in the still dark dawn, the pieces started coming together.

First, I was thinking again about my life verse that encourages me by saying:

Therefore, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of God. Consider him, who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:2-3

Then, as I was scrolling through some stuff on my phone, I bumped back up against a verse I had saved from Song of Solomon that says, simply, "Yea, he is altogether lovely." Avoiding the fun arguments about how Song of Solomon shapes our theology, I will simply say that one of the interpretations likens the love between the Lover and the Beloved to the love between Christ and the Church, and I love the thought that Christ is the one who is "altogether lovely", or as other translations say, "desirable in every way."

These two verses were butting up against each other in my mind as I tried to get back to sleep, when I realized that what I've been writing about all month, boiled down into just a few simple words is that if we want to see beauty, we have to look for beauty, and if we want to be beautiful, we have to put beautiful things into our minds, our hearts, and our souls.

When I truly make the choice to fix my eyes on Christ, it keeps me from growing weary and losing heart because he is the one who is altogether lovely, the one wholly desirable, and he feeds my soul with beauty. Because he is the ultimate beauty, when I purpose to put Christ in, more Christ (and consequently, more beauty) comes flowing out. It's that simple.

The secret is really that. simple.

{If you're looking for the rest of this series, all the links can be found here. Thank you so much for joining with me this month.}