Altogether Beautiful by Alan Anderson

“You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.”—Song of Solomon 4:7

To know we can create beauty is altogether beautiful. In my writing, I often portray beauty in a poignant way. Stories people have shared with me over the years show this. Beauty is watching an elderly lady invaded by Alzheimer’s disease smiling while holding a doll close to her chest like a baby. Beauty can be captured in the final moments a couple shares with each other. Beauty is seen in the face of a woman kissing the forehead of her husband a few seconds after he died.

At times beauty can be marred and disfigured. For instance, I find social media can be a wasteland of negativity, mindless clamouring, and scarce beauty. I often restrain myself from being sucked in to its sullied vortex. A couple of years ago I became sickened of the ugliness. I tried to encourage people to perhaps change things. I suggested people begin to highlight “the beautiful.” The beautiful includes anything that might lend a hand to social media to become more civilized. I am still disciplining myself to share beauty in this context.

One the other hand, beauty can indeed be seen on social media in our daily InScribe blog posts. We feel beauty when we engage with the writing of others. They are those who love contributing words of life for readers to enjoy.

Our posts are never wasted in sending them out into the world. Social media cannot censor the hearts called by God to speak into the encroaching madness. Our posts are light shining into the darkness of sin-enslaved lives. Our words are beauty causing ugliness to flee screaming into the night.

There are particular times in life where I need to see beauty. At times life seems a bit dark to me. The mountains around me on a clear and cloudless day; the beauty of the smiles of my grandchildren; Beauty in the hugs of my wife; the tail wags of our poodle Charlie; these are all experiences with beauty keeping me grounded and in love with life.

In the area of British Columbia where I live beauty is seen all around. No matter what season it may be beautiful scenes are abundant. Many times throughout the year I walk around with my camera to capture beauty. When I’m satisfied with a photo I will often use it in my writing such as on a blog post. I love creating such beauty. I only use photos I’ve taken or my daughter has taken for my blog posts. She and I see beauty in similar contexts so we share photos with each other.

Beauty is best defined when contrasted to ugliness or suffering in life. To me, the purpose of suffering, grief, or pain, is to enable us to appreciate the great glory there is in beauty. I think of Christ’s suffering for us on the Cross. In this tremendous sacrifice, the absolute beauty of our salvation shines through.

When challenges or struggles in life threaten to overtake us we can rest in beauty. The beauty God sees in us. The beauty originating in Him, the great Creator. God looks at us and says, “You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.” Oh, that we can grasp God’s depth of love for us.

This writing prompt evoked deep feelings within me. I believe this is because I am thankful God gave us the gift of beauty. Our feelings, our emotions, our tears, our laughter, all capture the beauty God placed within us. Oh my soul, bless and praise God for beauty!

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