It’s Friday again. And again I’m linking up with Lisa Jo as we explore beauty in five minutes of pure, unedited spill.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. ~Psalm 139:14 (NIV)
GO!
They buried Grandma King in her wedding dress.
My dress is in a cardboard box.
At least I think it is.
I never took it out after it came back from the cleaners.
I’m pretty sure nobody will bury me in it.
At least any time soon.
I used to measure out at 34-24-34.
Perfect dimensions, they said.
Now I’m more like four dimensions.
I sport frown lines, eye crinkles, and mouth puckers.
I have these icky skin lesions, courtesy of my father.
(Thanks a lot, Dad.)
And these freckle-like sun spots on my face that won’t bleach out or stay covered.
I can’t camouflage the dark circles under my eyes to my satisfaction.
When I get tired, my eyelids swell.
And when I get real tired, my left eye starts to droop.
I hate that.
It’s scary.
In the car, in the sunlight, I sigh at my “crepey” (not creepy) hands.
I can’t help but tent the skin to assess my state of hydration.
But it doesn’t seem to matter how much water I drink–it still stands at attention.
I’m not what I used to be.
But maybe I’m better than I used to be.
And this is what I’m finding.
The more I gaze on His beauty, the more I find beauty around me, the less I think about myself altogether.
I’m thinking He finds that beautiful.
STOP!
There is nothing ugly; I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may–light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful. ~John Constable
Love is a great beautifier. ~Louisa May Alcott
Very well written! Real and raw and true to life! I enjoyed visiting you today!
Thank you so much, Jen. So glad you stopped by.
Don’t you hate all that old stuff? {{sigh}} But God’s beauty never gets old. How you ever noticed how His beauty in another mesmerizes you to overlook the outer decay and only see the inner beauty? Great post as always, sweetie!
It’s in the eyes. His beauty shines through the eyes!
Your beauty shines whenever I visit here. I’m thinking your mirror is leading you astray!
You always know just the right things to say, Susan. 🙂
This is so precious. I am home a lot now due to a disability and have gained weight through not being so physically active. I sometimes feel so blah, and you’re right, the answer is to fix my eyes on Him!
That is so hard, Elizabeth. I know what that’s like in a sense since my daughter, young as she is, has traveled that same path. Keeping our eyes on Him does make everything else fall away–and it makes us beautiful. 🙂
i need to print that out and keep it next to the mirror, in my purse, in the car. . . well, you get my meaning 🙂 good words to remember–keeping my gaze on Him.
steph
As long as our eyes are on Him, He seeps out of ours! What could be more beautiful? (That is as long as we don’t allow ourselves to get so tired that our eyelids sag over our eyes. 😉
Oh, Sandra — to see His love pouring through these cracked and broken vessels is part of the extraordinary. Thank you for beauty wrapped in human. 🙂