Beautiful

I was so unique
Now I feel skin deep
I count on the make-up to cover it all
Crying myself to sleep cause I cannot keep their attention
I thought I could be strong
But it's killing me

Does someone hear my cry?
I'm dying for new life

I want to be beautiful
Make you stand in awe
Look inside my heart,
And be amazed

I want to hear you say
Who I am is quite enough
Just want to be worthy of love
And beautiful

Sometimes I wish I was someone other than me
Fighting to make the mirror happy
Trying to find whatever is missing
Won't you help me back to glory

You make me beautiful
You make me stand in awe
You step inside my heart, and I am amazed
I love to hear You say
Who I am is quite enough
You make me worthy of love and beautiful

-Bethany Dillon "Beautiful" (Bethany Dillon)

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Beautiful. Websters Dictionary defines it as "the ideal of beauty". 

Beauty. Defined as "something extraordinary; something excellent of its kind".

We all, men and women both, desire to be beautiful. We desire to be known as a beauty. We, at times, spend our whole life chasing after this "ideal". We want someone to notice it. We want someone to mention it to us. We long to hear "you look beautiful today", especially if we have work hard at achieving a certain look. It's human nature. We desire to be extraordinary in someone's eyes. We desire to be called excellent of its kind. I know I do. I have spent 23 years seeking to hear someone say it. 

I have been doing a study recently on what it means to be the bride of Christ. That is what we are called, as Christians, but I never knew what it meant. I could say it, but could not define it. So I started researching. What it has done, is drawn me to a deeper love of my king. God is so tender. He is so warm. God thinks I'm beautiful. 

Of course he does. He's God, right? But can you prove it? I can! "Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves." Song of Solomon 1:15 He doesn't just call me beautiful, he calls me his love. Do you see how tender and kind he is? That isn't enough? 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. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land." Song of Solomon 2:10-12 I could go to each chapter and find multiple verses where he calls ME beautiful. And in this one, it wasn't just "love", he called me beloved. How can you read such tender words and not have your heart melt into mush. And what is crazy, is that is how the God of this universe, the creator of beauty, feels about me, Amber. Not some random person, but uniquely and beautifully me. He doesn't love some future version of me, he loves me right now, right where I am at. And what's great, he feels the same way about you.

So today, as you go throughout your day, think upon these verses. Dwell on them, quote them, mediate on them. Believe them, trust them, bank on them. That is how your bridegroom feels about you, his beloved bride. Bask and trust in that love.