INNER BEAUTY

It is that time of the year when the glory of the summer flowers is fading. “Don’t you feel stressed,” I ask them in my thoughts. “You can’t go on being beautiful.” The breeze gives their heads a happy nod as they seem to say, “We don’t worry about those things, we just bloom while we can. We are not putting on a show; our beauty is simply being who we are.”

If only we people could learn from the school of flowers. It is no wonder that Jesus said to consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

What good is the stress and cost of maintaining outward beauty if we are false inside? And who just wants an outward appearance of religion. At best it is no more than a vase of artificial flowers. A beautiful handpicked wildflower from a child will bring more pleasure than a thousand perfect plastic blooming roses. Even though the flower will quickly fade, it has fulfilled its work of joyful love.

A dear friend told us about discovering a wild orchid in the woods. She was amazed at its beauty, and the realization that it was blooming for an audience of one, the creator himself. It certainly had not expected that she would happen upon it; but she was a witness to what pure worship looked like.

Do we display the beauty of a faith that is real? People notice flowers, and they also notice the beauty and fragrance of faithful living.

Today we can feel stressed about how we appear, or we can be joyful in who we are. We can be artificial, or we can be real. We will never see flowers trying to impress anyone; they just are what they are. We are made in the image of God; can we be happy to just be who we are?

“How freely the summer her tribute has brought,
She gave us the roses and lilies we sought;
Thus freely to Jesus our talents we give,
For Him we will labor as long as we live.”