How beautiful your sandaled feet, O prince’s daughter! Your graceful legs are like jewels, the work of an artist’s hands.

(Song of Solomon 7:1, NIV)

Many women have issues with their bodies.  Whether it is that we deem our breasts too small or too big; our waist not small enough; or our torso too short or too long many of us look into the mirror on a daily basis wishing we could change something about our bodies.

But imagine for a moment Monet finishing one of his most famous paintings, and instead of completing the task in excellence decides to paint the last quadrant of the picture in less than perfect form.  Or, for that matter, Leonardo da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa but deliberately botching her famed smile.  Not so.  If earthly artists seek to complete and present their work in excellence, how much more so will God?

It is sad that we now live in a society in which beauty has been left to objective detail down to the ratio of measurement of space between one’s eyes and nose, the width of one’s waist and the length of one’s legs.  However, if we were to take a look at what the scripture says about our creation we would be amazed to see that indeed we were all created perfectly.

Genesis 1:27 tells us that we were created “in His image and likeness”  In much the same way that human artists Monet and Leonardo Da Vinci did not seek to destroy the art they created, God did not, at the last moment, choose to botch that which he set His hands to form.  No.  We were created in dual perfection according to His image – the physical part of Him – as well as in His likeness, His emotional part.

Even David made note of this in Psalm 139 when he wrote, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth” (v. 14-15). Beloved, God knew your form, both past and present, even while you being formed within your mother’s womb.

Now this is not to say that we all share the same shape, or for that matter, that we share the same features.  But, despite our differences, we all have been created in the image and likeness of God our Father – the One who is perfect, and blameless, and beautiful, and pure.  How then can such a being, create anything less than what He is – true perfection?  Thusly you were created as a form of His perfection, a similitude of Him, perfect in your entirety.

It is my prayer for you today that you move away from the conventional conformation of what today’s society deems beautiful and that you come to see yourself as God sees you – as His masterpiece.  It is my prayer that you will be delivered from all insecurities in the name of Jesus, and that you will come to the realization that indeed beauty is not objective but rather subjective.  I pray that you will look to God as your beholder to seek His eyes as your validation rather than the eyes of man.  Lastly, it is my prayer that if your insecurities are rooted in or as a result of a condition that can be reversed that you will ask of the Lord to strengthen you for the journey so that you will no longer be bound to that which is hindering your peace.   I pray this prayer in none other than the matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Alleluia!

Know that I love you, all.

Red Shoes, and God’s Beholding;

Danielle: The Girl in the Red Shoes