beauty is power

We are in for a storm here…a big one. Another one.

The candles are on standby for the blackouts, I’m about to cook up a few things in the event of losing our electricity again so we aren’t limited with meals. It’s due to hit sometime tonight, tornados and all!

Driving alongside our wind-tossed sea, Little Miss Delight pipes up and says “Mummy, what if this day ends up beautiful?”

Who ever said it wasn’t?!

So I point out across our ocean and show her the soft, shadowy mist and rain that is now covering things that we know are out there. Things that are easy to spot on a fine day, like big rocks and islands and far off southern cities. Right now, they don’t exist, not visible at all, it’s like the grey sky has been smudged in with the grey ocean. We take note of all the green things looking much greener, the trees, the grass, it seems everything is saturated with the colour of wet.

So I tell her, ‘See baby, it’s already beautiful.”       Oh how I love seeing the beauty in everything! 

then I add,

“but beautiful can be dangerous.”

Being 6, of course she asks, 

“How?”

So we drive a little more, finding evidence of how that rain and wind caused havoc just days ago, when the last storm hit. We see the danger of fallen trees, roofs torn off broken houses, and boats washed ashore, and for now that’s all I show her.

But my mind goes further,

Yes, 

Beautiful can be dangerous.

How can I tell her that it can be a weapon used wrongly by her and others?

That both men and women alike can and often will use it against her out of their own insecurities, jealousy, comparison, competition and selfish ambition. That even projections of a beautiful life may cause her or others to stumble, to go off-course and distract her from where and how she is called to live her truest beautiful life.

That, like a fierce storm, Beauty is Power.

And depending on how it is harnessed can be used for good, or for evil.

I will tell her we can be beautiful people with beautiful power. That the Maker of all this wind and rain is also the giver of power within us that we can all possess. To be blessed with outer beauty and to constantly cultivate keeping it is one thing….but it is just that… one thing, there’s so much more! We don’t have to be a shell on the outside, but a powerhouse of inner beauty. We’ve heard all the quotes, ‘Beauty is Skin Deep’, ‘It’s in the eye of the beholder’ etc and it’s true.

'Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle kind that God delights in.' -1 Peter 3:4 The Message

Beautiful can be dangerous to darkness when we’re not just a pretty face. When we are in constant check of any underlying ugly that may show up rearing it’s wretchedness. Beauty’s danger to evil comes when we stand up for the downcast, when we speak words that are true, necessary and kind, when we rejoice in the success of others, when we step aside and let others shine. When we go without so that others don’t have to, when we surrender our heart to The One with the most Beautiful Power of all.

Let Him switch a light on in you, one that doesn’t go out in a storm. Be dangerously beautiful, as I believe you already are,

Who ever said you weren’t?!