God Makes You Beautiful

If I can tell you one thing for this New Year, one thing that I hope you will remember, one thing that can give you the hope that we all need as days go on, one thing that is absolutely true of you and true of God, it is that God will make you beautiful. It is true. That is how God works. God makes you beautiful. Why? We could call it love, we could call it grace, or any other number of other words that are incredibly hard to define. Or we could not worry about why, and simply smile that it is mysteriously true. God is making you beautiful, even as you read this. Now I do not mean beautiful in the way the world thinks of beauty. You may or may not be a stunner when looking in the mirror. People magazine will probably not be naming you most beautiful person of 2013 (however if that happens I want you to remember reading this). What I do mean by beautiful is you are made in God’s image. Again that does not necessarily mean you look like God, but it means that you have some spark of divinity within you. That spark of the divine, whether you can feel it or not, whether you can see it or not, whether you have any idea it is there or not, is there, and that spark is sublime. It means that all the ways that you try to define yourself, or the world tries to define you are null and void. You are not the worst parts of yourself, you are not the best parts of yourself, you are not your job, your mistakes, your regrets, your successes, your titles, you are a creature created by the Creator and you are being made more beautiful because that is what God does. God creates things and calls them good and makes them beautiful. And I know that you are not as good as you would like to be, and I know that because I am not as good as I would like to be. But do not forget that God is making you beautiful. I have seen a bumper sticker on some cars that reads, “Have patience with me, God isn’t done with me yet.” It is incredible that even bumper stickers can give some gospel truth. God is not done with you yet! What was it like for Peter? He never seemed to get Jesus. He was called “Satan.” He denied Jesus. It would be easy to think Peter would simply fade away. But there he was on Pentecost preaching… who would have guessed? Perhaps the God who makes all people beautiful. There is an ancient story about Peter trying to escape Rome during some of the Roman persecutions. As he was on a road leaving that ancient city of empire he met Jesus on the road and said, “Lord where are you going? They are persecuting us in Rome!” Jesus responded, “I go to Rome to be crucified again.” As the story goes, Peter followed Jesus into Rome and was crucified. It is a beautiful story about a beautiful person who was made beautiful by God and lived in a way that he could never have lived on his own. Please note that I am not saying death awaits you, but then again maybe I am. Perhaps to be made beautiful by God the person you think you are, or want to be, or others tell you are has to die. We die to ourselves to be made beautiful by God. This New Year has that in store for you. The God who makes all things beautiful is making you beautiful. What a miracle you are.