One of my granddaughters sat on my lap during the sermon at church recently. Her mother had brought along a bag of coloring books to keep her occupied while our pastor preached. As she pulled out one of the selections, we both studied its cover. It was an entire book dedicated to Disney Princesses. They were all there on the cover, Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, Pocahontas, Mulan, etc. A variety of ethnicities were represented there, different eye colors, hairstyles, and so on, but the thing that united them all was their physical beauty. Any one of these ladies would turn heads were they to walk into a room, and I mean, apart from Rapunzel’s ridiculously long locks and their flashy gowns. Now some may say that this is one of the main problems with Disney offerings, an overemphasis on the stereotypical female appearance, with their tiny waists, delicate hands, long lashes, and pretty eyes. But I want to argue in this brief article that the connection of women with beauty is no invention of Disney, but comes from the very mind of God and has redemptive significance. Allow me to explain…
First, let me say that I happen to think that all women are beautiful, to various degrees. And I’m convinced my Creator means me to think this way – they were, after all, His design. While the man was formed out of the dirt of the earth, the woman was an upgrade on the original model, taken, as she was, not from the soil but from his side. If man is a plot of land, woman is a lovely garden. If man smells like sweat, woman smells like flowers and perfume. If man is most closely related to strength, woman is most closely related to beauty. She is “sugar and spice and everything nice” as the old poem goes. In short, women speak of completeness, refinement. Of the many Hebrew words that are translated as “beauty” in the Old Testament, the same words are also translated as “pleasantness” “agreeableness” “splendor” and even “glory.” In the New Testament Paul just comes right out and says it, “woman is the glory of man.” (1 Cor. 11:7). I have often joked that the word “woman” probably came from Adam’s first reaction to his Father’s introduction of the woman – “Whoa, man!” This is roughly the internal response of every adolescent boy when they first discover that creature beside them in math class is no longer icky, but in fact, kinda cute. Then everything changes. How much of the world’s activities are generated by man’s endeavor to find and win the glory of a beautiful woman? “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?” wrote Marlowe regarding the beautiful Helen of Troy. And so it has been since the dawn of time.
And the fact that the average American woman spends about $3756 a year on their appearance, indicates that the pursuit of beauty isn’t just a masculine undertaking. Skin and hair care products, makeup and dresses, nail polish, and pedicures, none of which are necessary for staying alive, but all are sought for the sake of looking nice. These products don’t create beauty, they merely accentuate what is already there. Their clothing doesn’t form the shape and curves beneath them; those structures are from God. Now some would say that women’s attention to outward beauty is precisely because men value it so highly. But I disagree. While a woman surely notices the glances of the opposite sex, I see the desire for beauty in little girls long before they notice little boys. The desire to be lovely is placed in them by their Creator. And again, I say the reason is to testify to something so much bigger than earthly beauty. It is to witness to an epic story, THE story – the story of stories. The Son of God will have a Bride and she will be beautiful. “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” (Rev. 21:9-11) Whatever list of words you might use to describe this glorious appearing, surely “beautiful” would be one of them.
But Scripture also makes it clear that if a woman’s beauty is only skin deep, she is a walking contradiction. As Proverbs 11:22 says, “As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.” Indeed, in Revelation, when the Lamb’s Bride is revealed in gloriously beautiful garments, it says that the lovely linen she is arrayed in is the “righteous deeds” of the saints. And this is certainly the emphasis of the “Proverbs 31 woman,” the beauty of her righteous life. This is also why I think there are so many references to the unpleasantness of “contentious women” in Proverbs (21:9 & 19, 25:24, 27:15), not because men can’t be contentious, but that when a woman is, her departure is further from the delightfulness of her design. Her beauty is meant to be a beacon of the coming consummation when all things are truly “put together,” when the sweet has finally come and bitterness has been banished once for all. Beauty is at the end of everything, and the woman’s “gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Peter 3:4) is meant to reference that time when our warfare is ended and the Prince of Peace reigns supreme.
In the end, all believers are the Bride of Christ, and none of us were lovely when he found us. It was only as the Last Adam entered into the sleep of death, had his side riven with the spear, that His Bride came forth from the old. “She is His new creation, by water and the word,” as the old hymn says. And He gave Himself and continually gives Himself that He might one day present to “Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph. 5:27) In this way, women hold the special honor of envisioning that most glorious future. Their beauty is meant to lift our eye to that time when all things are made new and the “beauty of holiness” adorns us all.
