Beneath Your Beautiful

So my daughter was playing a song in the car this week that made me think. It’s called, “Beneath Your Beautiful,” by UK artist Labrinth, featuring Emeli Sande. He is singing to a girl who seems to have it all together and opens with:

You tell all the boys no

Makes you feel good yeah

I know you're out of my league

But that won't scare me away oh no

You've carried on so long

You couldn't stop if you tried it

You've built your wall so high

That no one could climb it

But I'm gonna try

The chorus is about how he wants to see beneath her beautiful, beneath her perfect. And there’s a line that is a bit provocative, “take it off now girl, take it off now girl.” Of course, I’m sure my daughter thinks it's so romantic that this observant singer is singing about wanting to see the real deal. He wants to see the girl behind all the walls, behind all the show, and know what is really inside. This is certainly a commendable message. Don’t mask the person you are, don’t get so caught up in the image of yourself. Coincidentally, the two Housewife Theologian small groups that I am leading are on Chapter Two this month, which is about beauty. It is called “In the Eye of the Beholder.” So the phrase “beneath your beautiful” isn’t quite sitting right with me. Is the show we are putting on really our beauty? No, it is an exploitation of beauty. In my book I share how the definition of beauty shows that it is connected with truth, originality, and harmony. What we so often try to portray as beauty is really a cheap knock off. We end up pursuing the opposite of beauty, something that denies our own uniqueness, manipulates the truth, and conforms to one way, the world’s way. Not very harmonious. So what is beneath our contrived beauty? Jesus addresses something similar in Matt. 23:27, ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.” The real us can be downright ugly. That’s why we work so hard to contrive beauty. Sometimes we focus so much on the outside of the cup (Matt:23:25). We use all the right products, eat the right food, and follow the social codes. We pay close attention to our image and “what’s out there,” forgetting that our biggest problem isn’t what’s outside of us, but rather what’s inside of us. It’s important to remember that we are made in the image of God. And yet, due to the fall we are totally depraved; therefore sin has tainted our beauty in all areas. Jesus Christ is the beatific vision that his bride, the church, waits to behold. Beauty isn’t cheap. And thanks to the One who is beautiful, we are even now being beautified for that great day. Amazingly, peeling away that exploited beauty is essential to true beauty. Our beauty is actually enhanced through the storm of conflict. Have you ever really looked up to someone in every way, and then they did something that exposed how broken and dreadful they really are? I have. And let me tell you, in some of those experiences I have been privileged to see the most beautiful thing ever. I am so grateful that I got to see past the perfect image, beneath contrived beauty. Beholding a flawed image unveiled and transformed by grace is so much more beautiful.