Beauty is the right combination of several different elements or qualities. When you see a rose, you see color, shape, and texture. But its beauty is in the combination of these. When I see my wife, Alissa, I don’t just see her body or her mind or her heart. I don’t just see how she looks, how she thinks, or how she talks. I see her beauty in the combination of all these.

Still, when we say or talk about “beauty,” a problem begins to surface. We tend to fixate on just one quality or aspect at the expense of all the others. So we may place a large emphasis on the physical beauty of someone. They are beautiful when they are physically attractive to us. But focusing on only one element of beauty can lead to shallow and empty relationships. 

What happens when the beauty of a young Alissa begins to fade? Has she ceased to be beautiful? No! As the combination changes, her beauty changes. This means it’s possible for her to always be beautiful to me. There is always beauty to behold, if one has eyes to see. And even if no one sees it, there is still beauty there, they are still beautiful. We don’t bestow beauty on someone or something; we behold what is already there.

We should, then, always encourage the beauty we see in others. The beauty of encouragement leads to the encouragement of beauty. If you start with encouraging the beauty you easily see, you will quickly discover that there’s more beauty there than you ever imagined. Beauty will grow. And your capacity to see beauty will grow.

This is why the critical person finds it so easy to criticize but so difficult to encourage: they have ceased to be able to recognize beauty. Their capacity to see and to encourage what is beautiful has diminished to the point of no return in their relationships. 

On the other hand, when we do encourage beauty we will discover that one quality of beauty often enters the picture through another. For example, we may not always find someone physically attractive at the beginning of a friendship. But as the friendship grows through, say, common interests or pursuits, their physical beauty will often begin to emerge. The right combination of different elements begins to occur.

We are made for beauty—to see it, to desire it, to rejoice in it. We are made, ultimately, to see and to behold the highest and deepest beauty of all: the beauty of God.

Paul rejoices, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18). David sings, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord” (Psalm 27:4). What is the glory and beauty of the Lord? What are the qualities? What is the right combination? More than a what, it is a who: Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Isaiah had prophesied that there would be nothing beautiful or majestic in the physical appearance of the coming Savior (Isaiah 53:2). He would be ordinary, unattractive. His beauty and majesty would be found in something other than his physical appearance. It was surely to be found and seen in who he was and how he lived. It was the beauty of his love and mercy, grace and kindness, forgiveness and faithfulness that would capture our heart’s attention and worship. 

Here in Jesus was God in the flesh, coming to earth to lay down his own life for us by dying on a cross for our sins. It is the beauty of his death, burial, and resurrection that we now behold. To gaze upon the beauty of this crucified, resurrected, and living Savior is what transforms us. His beauty never ends.

Tim Keller notes that we don’t ever say of something beautiful “of what use is that”. Rather, we stand in awe, we admire, we worship. Jesus Christ is not “useful,” but is beautiful, wonderful, glorious, majestic. He is to be admired, praised, adored, and worshipped. He alone can fill and satisfy our heart to the deepest and widest and highest parts. 

It is seeing the beauty of Christ that makes seeing beauty in others desirable and possible. Since I am being changed into the image of Christ, it is Christ being formed in me that sees the Christ being formed in Alissa. Ours is a beauty that is both our own and not our own. It is a beauty bestowed upon us by grace. God’s grace in Jesus reveals and produces an infinite amount of combinations in us and through us. We are made beautiful, we are given the capacity to live a beautiful life, we are called to reflect the beauty of the Lord to the world.