Beautiful Brides....

I was watching a story the other day that touched me deeply.

A young woman and man were about to be married and were working on some final details of their wedding.

The bride was expressing her struggle with low self-esteem and how much she had suffered over the years from disliking herself. She began to weep as she spoke about it and how her fiance has been such a big support to her.

The tender part was watching how her fiance, the groom, related to her. He spoke of how beautiful he thought she was and that his desire for her was to know her beauty and be a stunning vision of beauty on their wedding day.

As I sat there and watched this story, it really pierced my heart that love makes the Beloved beautiful.

When this man looked at this woman, he didn't see the flaws that the world loves to impose upon us all. He saw his beautiful bride to be, a woman who captivated him and a woman whom he wanted to know the truth about herself.

What a beautiful example of the longing of love.

On a much deeper level, that's how Jesus loves us. We can look at ourselves, see our faults and failings, our past and our struggles, our "ugliness" and say to ourselves, "I am so broken and sinful, how can Jesus truly love me and find me delightful?"

But Jesus doesn't look at us through our eyes, He looks at us through His eyes and His eyes are eyes of love. We are beautiful because of His love for us, not because we are perfect or "holy" or great achievers.

As the fiance in this story looked at his bride to be and saw her beauty and her potential, so Jesus, in an eternal and whole way, sees our beauty and potential.

We don't have to act or put on "make up" to be found beautiful and desirable and worthy by Him.

We need only go to Him, reveal our "ugliness" and He takes it and makes us clean, revealing our beauty to us, the beauty He already sees.

This kind of love, on earth and in heaven, truly sets us free.....