Beauty

God doesn’t make decisions like we do, or based on the things we do. Noticing the rhythms of this world and our own tendencies, we find that the most common definition of beauty is based on visual appearance. However, that is not all beauty is limited to… the Bible is drenched in stories that tell of “inner beauty”. It is not merely the physical aesthetic that God is concerned about, rather in scripture it more often describes God’s concern for the state of the heart of mankind. We are humbled when we learn that the Bible describes many times when God has used very unlikely (and often less than glamorous) persons to do important work for his kingdom. In a culture to that praises “beauty”, the Bible reminds us that outer beauty is not everything. The reality of the natural order of this world is that material beauty is bent towards fading, because the world is not yet as it should be (all creation groans…) and the truest beauty is of God. We are quick to judge others and determine if they are “fit for the job”, but in reality we never know who God might use. This week we will see how God chose a shepherd boy, David, based on a different standard than we might expect.