So, if feminine is more than soft, frilly, lacy, silky trappings but is truly about authenticity, how do I allow my heart to be exposed to a world that often wants to trample all over that part of me? How do I live out there where others can see and experience me in that way?
It is only as I become intimately connected with my Lord God that I find the safety and security to open that part of me and allow Him to use it to add value to others. Beauty adds richness to the mundane. Like a rich, dark chocolate exploding on the tongue or the perfume that flows naturally from a rose, God urges me to release that part of me that He has made beautiful.
God breathed life into us (Genesis 2). God made woman as His final crowning glory to set forth before the world His beauty. The heart of woman is beauty. Women were meant to invite and draw people with our woman’s heart to God’s captivating glory. (Isa 55:1-2, and Song of Solomon 4:9-15).
The world is hungry for what we offer as women—beauty. It is no secret that the beauty of flowers, smells, sunsets, sunrises—in fact, all of creation sets forth God’s beauty and goodness. God has planned for women to be the ones to share that beauty with the world. Author Simone Weil wrote, “The beauty of the world is almost the only way by which we can allow God to penetrate us. ..Beauty captivates the senses in order to obtain permission to pass straight through to the soul. The soul’s inclination to love beauty is the trap God most frequently uses in order to win it.” God has given this gift of beauty to women. We bear the image of God.
Most of the shame and guilt we have experienced as women is because of the conflict between this God-given beauty and the messages the Enemy tries to contain us with. Yet, when we fail to accept how beautifully we are made and reflect that beauty to our world, we allow the Enemy to deprive us of an opportunity to draw others to our Beautiful Creator God. The only thing standing in the path to keep us from experiencing all of the abundance of joy God wants us to find in our beauty (John 15:11) is our doubts and fears about being authentic. It is where we become most vulnerable. Solution—drawing intimately into the arms of Jesus and allowing His love to enfold us and surround us.
