During this pleasant fall weather, I have spent a lot of time in my yard getting it ready for winter. The beautiful flowers are gone and plants are turning yellow. I thought of the verse in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Through the spring and summer and even into the fall my yard was lit with colorful blossoms. That was their time.
I wondered, When was my time for beauty? As a child I was overweight and filled with self-distain. Even when I was “normal” weight as an adult, I was still not particularly attractive. Now age has added a few wrinkles, pounds and gray hair. Did I miss my time to be beautiful?
I don’t think God says that at some point we will be beautiful. We may think that we would be pretty if we lost weight, had silky hair or some of the many other ways that society tells us is the answer. But I Samuel 16:7b tells us, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” God is not concerned with our physical appearance.
God sees us as beautiful all the time. The beauty may change at different ages; a child’s innocence, an adolescence’s self-search or an old person’s compassion and wisdom. I don’t think that you are like my flowers; beautiful only for a time. I think that your beauty changes with you as you grow in Christ’s wisdom. Whatever age or shape you are, you are beautiful to your Creator.

What makes you feel beautiful? Is it make-up or clothes? Or is there something deeper?