Beautiful

You're beautiful; do you know that? Do you know why you're beautiful? You're beautiful because God made you beautiful. The only question that remains, then, is what you will do with your beauty. 

This is what Ezekiel was talking about when he spoke to Israel in chapter 16 of his prophecy. He reminds them that yes, they are a beautiful people and a beautiful nation, but they are beautiful only because the Lord their God made them beautiful. Yet, they used their beauty to whore themselves, becoming prostitutes and chasing after other gods. 

Ouch.

It's exactly, though, the kind of reminder that we often need, especially in America. Many of us live blessed lives. They don't always seem blessed because they are so, well, average. They're the kind of lives that we expect to live in this place and at this time, so we use the blessings that we have to go out and try to get all the things that the world promises - promotions, wealth, status, opportunity. We parade ourselves around, using every good thing we've got to get more. Our lives are beautiful because of what they can get us. And boy, do we flaunt it. 

What we've forgotten is why our lives are beautiful. That's why we take the liberty to use it to whatever advantage we see fit. We think that's just naturally who we are, that that's just the benefit of being born in this place and time, that that's just life...for everyone. If we open our eyes just a little bit, though, we see that our blessed lives are not just life for everyone; they are the gift of life for us. 

Beautiful little gifts of life from the One who loves us enough to make us beautiful. 

...and we whore it out. We strut it down the street in high heels and too much makeup. We put skin-tight clothing around it and show off all of its curves. We take what is blessedly beautiful and make it...cheap, all the while telling ourselves that we're doing ourselves a favor. That we're working for us. 

Never mind that what we're working is the streets. 

Sorry, but we need to hear this. Myself included. Because we understand, on some level, just how beautiful our blessed lives are. If we didn't, we wouldn't believe they could get us anything. It's precisely because they're beautiful that we figure out how to leverage them. It's precisely because they're beautiful that we count them worth displaying. It's precisely because they're beautiful that we're okay with the world seeing. 

But why is your blessed life beautiful? 

It's not because you were fortunate enough to live in America in 2019. Or another first-world country able to access this blog right now. There are plenty of first-world residents living third-world lives. It's not because you worked hard and earned everything you've got. There are plenty of persons who work hard and have nothing to show for it. It's not because you have the best family or the best friends or the best genes or the best dog or whatever it is you think you've got the best of. 

Your blessed life is beautiful because God made it so. Because God loves you enough to make your life beautiful...to make you beautiful. 

And if you're taking that beauty and doing anything with it but praising Him, honoring Him, witnessing Him, loving Him...then you're no better than Israel in the time of Ezekiel. You're a whore. Hey, I didn't say it - the prophet said it (okay, I kind of said it, too....harsh, but true). 

So what are you gonna do with that?