Day 1
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me
You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart (Psalm 51:6 - NRSVA)
The tall, stately Heliconia was the focal point of the beautiful floral arrangement my sister shared by photo. My eyes were immediately drawn to the bold, dramatic beauty of the tropical plant, also known as "lobster claw" and "false-bird-of-paradise."
I later wondered if these nicknames hint at the slightly jarring peculiarity about the Heliconia that my sister was striving to convey. "They're not beautiful close-up," she explained. When I asked why, she told me that seen up close, they have a suggestion of "something monstrous," although she wondered if monstrous was too strong a word. (Perhaps—as I immediately pictured The Little Shop of Horrors*). Still, she concluded, "they're more beautiful from a distance."
Her assessment, "more beautiful from a distance" made me think of all that Scripture has to say, from both a corrective and an instructive viewpoint, about truth, about authenticity, and about motives. The emphasis on "the heart" is unmistakable—that secret place from which flows everything we do (Proverbs 4:23).
Our Lord Jesus had much to say about authenticity. Some of his strongest corrective pronouncements were against hypocrisy, insincerity, false appearances, and deceit.
In startlingly blunt fashion, He reproached impostors of truth and genuine holiness, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean..." (Matthew 23:27).
Jesus' instructive approach included countless hours of teaching and modeling a love of God that went way beyond "the letter of the Law" (Matthew 5). "You have heard it said" was His introduction to the laws His audience considered sacred, and indispensable.
But then, before any spark of self-congratulation could ignite, before the thought could form, “all these I have kept since I was a [child]” (Mark 10:20), His next words zeroed in to the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. With authority, Jesus dismantled the legalistic checkboxes of the religious: "But I say to you," He challenged, dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow (Hebrews 4:12).
Whenever I read these words of Jesus in "The Sermon on the Mount" (The Gospel of Matthew Chapters 5-7), I am struck again by the radical faith that He calls us to. A faith that doesn't just look good from afar, but that stands up to close scrutiny. Genuine, and beautiful.
I want to live like that! And God assures me that I can. Not by my own efforts, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, living in me. Because we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).
I want to be a genuine "bird of paradise." To reflect my Savior's glory—from a distance, and up close—to display the true colors of His beauty. Not lobster claws. Or dead men's bones.
* The Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 film categorized as horror/comedy
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