Truly Beautiful

She was beautiful. Her name was Nancy, and she was beautiful. She had dark hair that didn't always lay straight, and she was beautiful. Her eyes were wider apart than normal, and she had heavy bags under each of them. Here ears were large and strangely shaped. And, she was beautiful. Her mouth hung open virtually all of the time, which also meant that you could see that she had only a partially complete set of teeth. Her nose was bent and crooked, and her skin sagged and hung loosely around and under her mouth. And, she was beautiful. She was small and walked with a shuffle. Her fingers were not formed correctly with the result being that she only had three fingers and a thumb on each hand. Her mental ability was what is politely called "slow." Her speech was halting and many times difficult to understand because of her various physical and mental impairments. And, she was beautiful.

Obviously, she was not beautiful in appearance. Nor was her life what many would call the "beautiful" life. Nor was she beautiful in her intelligence, or in any other way that we usually assign meaning to the concept of beauty. No, Nancy was beautiful because of who she was. She was a woman who smiled and waved at almost everybody she saw, and almost always had a happy greeting to share in the morning. She was beautiful because in some way beyond "normal" reckoning, Nancy radiated joy-waves all about her. It was impossible for one to have even a passing encounter with her and not be affected by those joy-waves. In Nancy, one could truly glimpse what is so often missed in our social encounters and even our friendships and relationships with one another. In Nancy, one could catch a glimpse of the image of God imprinted upon the soul.

A few weeks ago, Nancy went to be with God, and a bit of beauty was transfered from earth to heaven. I pray that we will all see the good, right, sure and true beauty of the LORD one day, and maybe even recognize someone who was known on earth as Nancy. Then we will all surely see that she was beautiful then, and will only grow more beautiful forever.


IHHN

LEE