Jesus makes us truly beautiful - a meditation on physical beauty and imperfection

I was on the tram yesterday and it struck me that what we think of as beautiful at least in our culture, is youth. Skin that is clear and young and without wrinkles. This is what men are drawn to and what women long for and spend on makeup and tweezers and so on to cover and smooth and remove. Women long to be this and men to be one with this 'beauty'. Maybe you've seen the dove video (evolution commercial) that shows a model being made ready for the billboard. Going from 'imperfection' to 'beautiful'.



On top of this, we fear aging and the slow decay that comes day by day and try to hide it. We are in some way repulsed by it. I think these things reflect deep spiritual realities. I wonder if they point to the true state of our souls and selves apart from God.

I realised that Jesus did exactly the opposite of what most men do. I've been thinking about how the church is called the bride of Jesus. He came to people, who were dead in our sins and transgressions, truly ugly beyond belief and appearance in our sin, and he died to make us beautiful. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sancify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. (Eph 5:25-27) The Church, the people saved by God, are Jesus' bride. And he died to make us beautiful, to take away the real spots and blemishes and wrinkles that make us truly ugly, the sin wich the imperfections of our physical bodies are just a picture of. To present us to himself truly beautiful, and radiant without the need for makeup, or a makeover, but truly a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). Oh what a wonderful Lord we have, our true husband who took our ugliness and shame on himself on the cross, becoming sin for us so that we would become the righteousness of God 2 Cor 5:21.

Here's a song from Jesus culture which has helped me love Jesus more, as the one who made us beautiful. Our great Lord and King, our rescuer, our faithful husband.