You know how people say beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Well, it’s true. The sad part of that statement is that we want the wrong person to be beholding our beauty. In fact, we often times choose a beholder that doesn’t consider us to be beautiful. This leads to disappointment, betrayal and depression. I know you think you can’t choose who beholds your beauty; but what if I told you otherwise. That there is one person out there who looks into the depths of your being and says that you are beautiful beyond expression? If you’ve spent any length of time in church, then you will say that God doesn’t count because His beholding of our beauty is more esoteric and abstract than the tangible gaze of a lover; yet God’s love and His beholding of our beauty is the most tangible type of love and adoration we can ever receive.

My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. – Song of Solomon 2:10-11

If you read the Song of Solomon as I do, that is literally, then it’s pretty clear that it is a really romantic poem between two lovers. Pretty obvious, I know. In this case, the lovers are a king and a girl in the order of Cinderella (that is to say that she does all the work while supporting the family). If you walk past the lines that look like Shakespeare or a Zane novel, you begin to realize the embodiment of intent behind the sensual language. Their expressions come from seeing each other through where they currently are and what they were created to be. What I mean by that is simply: they see each other in light of what God created them to be even though their circumstances may not lend themselves to be what they were meant to be. More plainly, they love each other for what is possible and in what is implicitly stated. They love each other in the here and now and are willing to walk together to get there. If it weren’t the Bible, you may call this a fairy tale. Yet this is what God intended love to be from our perspective onto other people– we are to behold people in the beauty God created them in. We do this because God sees us in this beauty. In order to find love like this, we have to first accept love like this. We accept love from God in this way– a passionate pursuit of inner beauty within us despite what we portray on the outside. He in turn, gives us the capacity to pursue others in this way. What I am advocating is not the romantic ideal of love. I wouldn’t advocate for that at all. What I am advocating for is a love that surpasses the pros and cons of a romantic love and embodies a love that is willing to see past character faults, shortcomings and mistakes to see the beauty behind what we plainly see and behold what God intended to be and walk with this person or people until they see it. Jesus calls out to our hearts and tells us to arise out of the waste our lives have borne and bred and walk with him out of love. If your life seems to be an eternal winter, then listen for the beholder who calls out to our beauty. If you’ve spent your life hiding in a shelter from what seems to be torrential rains, then take Jesus’ hand and take a journey with him because the rains will cease and a time of singing is coming.