Price of Beauty

“The beauty of freedom doesn’t come free but it’s worth every penny.”
Loren Thornburg

Beauty is something we revere highly in our culture. From fashionable clothing, to makeup, to diets, to jewelry, to name brands, the list goes on. We all know this comes at a price of money, time, and sometimes pain. Yet true beauty has less to do with the outside than it does with the inside. Beauty involves features that are attractive. Although there is something very attractive about looking good on the outside if that is not also found on the inside it leaves us forever unsatisfied. The most attractive beauty that lasts is a heart that is free. Not bound by burdens, bitterness, pride, restlessness or doing, but a heart free to be with or without the latest fashion. Now, there is nothing wrong with being in style and looking good unless that is where you are finding your beauty. It won’t be found there...at least not for long. Beauty is found in a heart that is free, but the beauty of freedom comes at a price too. We have to be willing to let go of our burdens, forgive those places of bitterness, humble ourselves when prideful, rest when we are restless and trust that we can be and that is enough. This beauty doesn’t come easy either, but it lasts. Find freedom and you will find beauty that remains.

“God does not view things the way men do. People look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7 NET

God wants us to be free. Not just to look free, but to really be free from the inside out. We often confuse this as the outside in, but God is different. He sees beauty differently than we often do. Beauty of the heart is what is attractive to Him and He knows just how to free us to that beauty if we will let Him. It sounds crazy not to want that or to let Him do that, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. It means letting Him into those places of pain, places of shame, places that we would rather ignore or keep hidden. For those places are keeping us from freedom, they are keeping us from Him, they are keeping us from others. Yet, what great beauty if found that attracts others in a heart that is free. Free to love, free to risk, free to be...it’s possible if we let Him. It comes at a price but the investment is eternal and you will never regret it.