The beautiful life you were created for

​I originally wrote this post about a year ago (22 August 2020); the day Charl asked me to be his girlfriend!
 
It doesn’t, however, have anything to do with Charl or earthly romance, but Jesus and becoming a heavenly bride. Yet I can share this now as a celebration of a beautiful earthly romance, being a mere glimpse of the heavenly.
 
Somehow I never got around to posting it; so here goes:

​​Last night I met a little girl and something in my heart was ignited by her, to the extent where I’m currently laptop-in-bed at 4 am on a Saturday. I was reminded why I’m passionate about weddings and brides; why I’m currently crazy enough to learn Hebrew and what this blog was about in the first place.
 
Her name is Zoë; which means “life”. And what an invitation to abundant life she is (John 10:10)?
​

The bride

​She was walking around dressed in a dainty white cape. Apparently, this had been her wedding dress for the last 3 days. I already liked her.

​So I watched her; I couldn’t keep my eyes off her; as she sat up straight to eat her cereal dinner like she was royalty - as she fixed the flowers and sparkly clips in her messy hair and  innocently appreciated the beauty staring back at her in the mirror above the sofa she was standing/illegally jumping on.

​Oh, and she was even willing to share this beauty; loosely tying her mother’s hair and then announcing: “You look beautiful!”  
​

The royal bride

She reminded me of Psalm 45 - the royal wedding Psalm (of which verse 9 happens to be the key Scripture of Queen in Gold).

​Little Zoë’s innocence is a clear reminder that our desire to be the royal bride is inherently part of us. We were created for such a relationship with the King.

“Let the King be enthralled by your beauty; honor Him, for He is your Lord.” -Psalm 45:11 

​See, this royal marriage is found throughout Scripture. We see marriage imagery in Genesis 2, the prophetic books (Isaiah 62; Jeremiah 2; Ezekiel 16; Hosea 2-3), and quite obviously in Song of Songs. Paul describes the relationship between a husband and wife as a divine mystery that points us towards the relationship between Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:21-33). And then there’s the grand finale in Revelation (19, 21); the wedding of the Lamb.
 
But the thing that captured me about Zoë is not merely her desire to be a bride, but her desire to be and build beauty.
​

The beautiful bride

“You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.” – Song of Songs 4:7

​Before I say anything further I feel like I should just take a moment to credit and quote a substantial part of my line of thought here to John and Stasi Eldregde in one of my favorite books; Captivating. If this is not something you’ve read yet, now would be a good time to put it on your reading list; or better yet – just start reading it!
 
They explain that beauty is part of who God is:

“Beauty is essential to God. No – that’s not putting it strongly enough. Beauty is the essence of God. The first way we know this is through nature, the world God has given us. Scripture says that the created world is filled with the glory of God (Isa. 6:3). In what way? Primarily through its beauty...”

“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.” -Psalm 27:4 

​John and Stasi further explain the relation between beauty and Eve:

“God gave Eve a beautiful form and a beautiful spirit. She expresses beauty in both. Better, she expresses beauty simply in who she is. Like God, it is her essence...
 
The essence of a man is Strength. A man is meant to be the incarnation – our experience in human form – of our Warrior God. A God who comes through for us...
 
The essence of a woman is Beauty. She is meant to be the incarnation – our experience in human form – of a Captivating God. A God who invites us...”

​There’s so much more to say on this topic, I simply can’t cover everything here. Perhaps go and read the post “Does God think you’re beautiful?” or better yet; go read Captivating.
 
I do, however, have to tell you about another girl I met.
​

The other Zoë

Little Zoë didn’t merely remind me of my true essence; she actually also reminded me of another girl we "named" Zoë after I couldn’t remember her real name.
 
We met once, briefly, at the beginning of the year. 
 
In contrast to little Zoë, this young lady is probably completely unaware of her beauty. Or perhaps she sees beauty as a burden that draws attention she’d rather not receive.
 
We met on an outreach to her home; which is basically a drug den. I asked about her story, but she was hesitant to tell. She said she couldn’t go back to her real home; she didn’t want to say how she got there.
 
Then she disappeared inside the house to make some tea and didn’t return. It seemed fairly obvious that this was her way of avoiding further conversation.
 
But then, right before we left, she reappeared. I went to say goodbye and she was the one who hugged me; craving love, security, and acceptance like we all do.
​
Later that day a friend and I started writing a song for her (which basically only ever became a single verse). Its message was simple:

“Do you know that you’re beautiful? 
Do you know the King adores you?”

The beautiful life ​

Today it’s so clear to me: the contrast between what we were created for and what we were left with after our innocence was stolen (Genesis 3).
 
Life (aka Zoë) was meant to be one where our beauty is delighted in by the King, yet beauty has become something we either chase in futile efforts or despise and try to hide.
 
The enemy started lying to Eve in the garden and in the same way he deceives us today – but that’s not where the story ends.
 
Do you remember I told you about the grand finale in Revelation? That’s the real end. The happy ever after – the one we dream about as little girls.
 
Jesus paid the price for our sins – He took our shame on Him to give us back our innocence. Although it might seem like we are caught up in a den of hopelessness – our eternal reality is one of hope.
 
Perhaps you are reading this and you are/have grown unfamiliar with the Gospel. This is it – the good news that Jesus took our shame on Him and that you can choose to accept His gift of innocence. You can choose to embrace life with Him as His pure and lovely bride.

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