Beauty is often only considered skin-deep in our culture. No wonder we often live like that is all there is...because we seem to think that's all it really is. But beauty is so much bigger, so much more.
For example, when we observe that something is a thing of beauty, what are we saying? What kinds of things do we describe this way? How about a 'well-oiled' machine, like a high-quality car? How about a team that performs very well together? How about an significant accomplishment that has a manifest result? We say such things are a real 'thing of beauty'. Something we don't fully understand, but can deeply appreciate...can be a real thing of beauty. And, of course, things in nature or artwork can be beautiful.
What about the human dimension of things? Women, for example, can be beautiful. The strength of a man can also be beautiful. A relationship between a man and woman can be beautiful. As can a relationship between a father and son, or mother and daughter.
How about another dimension of beauty; is it possible that a woman's beauty is enhanced by the strength of a man, one that allows her to relax, to offer tenderness, gentleness? To me there is little that surpasses that beauty and yet it can be so easily tarnished when a woman seeks the beauty (glory) of a man. Likewise, the strength of man is a beautiful thing, especially when it is sacrificial, other-centered. A woman, like nothing other, can enhance this kind of beauty, when it supports the risks a man can take when extending his strength towards a world that needs it.
In other words, there seems to be an even more beautiful beauty, a combined beauty, that emerges out of individual masculine and feminine beauty.
I hope our sons and daughters can catch a glimpse of these realities of beauty, a kind that will take them past the skin-deep versions so splattered about by our culture.
