Unfading Beauty

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University

"[your beauty] should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." I Peter 3:4

"Beauty is only skin-deep but ugly goes clear to the bone." Popular saying.

"Ugly is skin-deep; beauty goes clear to the soul." Bill B.

Yesterday I wrote of Yongtai's lush valleys, deep gorges, rivers and streams, high mountain meadows, and wildlife. There was even beauty in the thousands of foil bags on loquat trees, sparkling on the sunlit hillsides like fields of Oriental Christmas trees. And perched proudly in the midst of Yongtai's natural splendor was an impressive new cliff-side luxury resort. But unlike living Creation, which is breathtakingly beautiful whether viewed from afar by telescope or under close scrutiny of the microscope, the resort was less impressive up close.

Workmen had slopped together some of the tiles, splattered cement on the floors, misaligned window frames, installed leaky pipes. Rust stains seeped from metal frames, the wallpaper had already peeled in places, and the wood-grain tiles had loosened. In a few years, the tree roots will buckle walkways and floors, and in a decade it will probably resemble the cheap place we spent the night (which ten years ago was sparkling new).

Back home in Xiamen, one of my favorite hotels glistens and sparkles in the public areas, but it is a constant battle to keep it that way, and the hotel has had more facelifts than Elizabeth Taylor. And take the staff's entrance and you find that behind the facade of luxury are the bare bones of painted concrete--which makes sense, of course. Why waste money on something no one sees or cares about? My point is simply that the closer we look at manmade beauty, the more we find fault with it, and over time the beauty fails, whereas the closer scientists examine the so-called "natural" Creation, the more they marvel at its intricacy and beauty, which does not unravel but unfolds. because it is alive.

A century ago, Gulangyu Islet was the richest square mile on earth. Today, most of the hundreds of opulent mansions are decaying and abandoned, the grand gates have fallen. The only survivor of Gulangyu's Colonial opulence are the giant banyan trees, which grow right out of the walls so proudly erected 80 years ago.

True beauty is not skin-deep but emanates from the very core of our being. True beauty is alive, and with age grows more beautiful, not less (like my Susan Marie!). Beauty dies only when we reject life, or try to live it our own way, which is rather like a child trying to improve ayour inner self, the unfading beauty of a Picasso with a crayon.

Peter said, "[your beauty] should be that of gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." I Peter 3:4

Like all Creation, we were blessed not only with life but purpose. It is in fulfilling our unique individual purpose that we become beautiful--to others and to our Father, and experience that peaceful inner spirit that can leave a lasting legacy in the lives of those we touch.

Embrace life, purpose, and beauty.
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