Scripture

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance,
    nothing to attract us to Him.

~Isaiah 53:2, NLT

Quote

There is no love so great and wonderful as that which is in the heart of Christ.

~Jonathan Edwards

It is a fact, we humans are attracted to beauty. No one takes a vacation to the slums. You don’t have any plans to spend a week in Harlem, do you? I did not think so. Your plans are for the beach, mountains, a resort, or one of the wonders of the world like the Grand Canyon or perhaps an amusement park. What do all these things have in common? Majesty and beauty. We are drawn to it. None of us are attracted to the ugly and unsightly. There is no doubt that Isaiah is talking about Jesus and he says,There was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance, nothing to attract us to Him. What did Isaiah mean? What is the truth of this passage? Most scholars believe that it is in reference to Jesus physical appearance. In other words, Jesus may not have looked like Jim Caviezel. Packer and others believe that it is a good thing that we have no pictures of Jesus; if we did, we would worship the picture instead of the person. Another truth is: we might be disappointed in His physical appearance. My mother quoted often, “Beauty is as beauty does.” Have you discovered how some unattractive people become beautiful once you get to know them. It works the other way too, some people become less attractive due to their attitude and behavior.

When it comes to gentleness, meekness, kindness and love, there is no one like Jesus. There is a huge difference between the glory of a candle and the glory of the sun. The glory of Jesus infinite goodness cannot be compared to any good that we might produce. No one loves you like Jesus. No one understands you like Jesus. No one sympathizes with you like Jesus. No one else was willing or able to go to bat for you when it came to the problem of sin. Jesus took our sin upon Himself. He died in our place. I don’t know about the physical appearance of Jesus but I know His heart; He has a beautiful heart. Evidently Paul saw Jesus in the flesh and was not impressed, but when he saw His heart, things changed and Paul devoted his life to Christ. I think it is possible that Paul’s devotion to Christ has never been matched.

It is obvious that the world does not see a beautiful Christ, but I do and hopefully, you do too. It is not a direct quote but the thought originated with Edwards, “Christ is a beauty of which all other beauties are a mere echo or shadow.” I am not going to lie, I think the greatest of all earthly beauty is the female that God fashioned. God made the man out of clay but He fashioned the woman. I am sorry, but there is no comparison between a beautiful woman and a beach or a mountain. I don’t have a scripture for it, but I firmly believe that one glimpse of Jesus will erase all our memories of all earthly beauties. They are merely a shadow of the real thing.

Extra

It is Friday I think. It is also hot and dry. I am longing for rain. I got five ears of corn out of the garden yesterday and ran some water down the middles but barring rain, we are not going to make any corn. The two weeks of no rain hit it just right. Oh well, that is the way the cookie crumbles.

I hope you enjoy the blog and I pray you have a good weekend.