The Mark of God

Such truth, comprehended, brings forth both hurt and health,
for this mirror declares the very nature of the soul. Anon.

Young and full of life, she sits in front of the artist.
She is genuinely attractive, her soft skin reflecting the finery of a frame which reveals poise and grace in both form and manner. Her eyes dance with life and her smile warms the world, but these are not merely fleeting, trivial glances for the portrait.

The model is a friend,
and the 'glory' of her physical beauty is but another expression of the person before me - someone who is kind and generous, who has been there for others in times of trial and pain.
Though young, she has already shouldered trauma and, far from becoming harsh or bitter, she has sought to give strength and inspiration to encourage others.

The beauty of her form, then, calmly speaks if we listen, of something so vivid and searching, that much of human history has either sought to vaunt it so high or drag it so low that it could not be encountered, could not be received, on its own terms.
And yet, here she is -
a young woman that clearly speaks of the significance, of the rightness of all that is feminine.

Here is evidenced something that so many philosophers, teachers and theologians have either miss-understood or sought to ignore altogether, and yet, as Eve was to Adam and the 'bride' (Church) is to Christ, so this person 'speaks' of the majesty of the work of God.

If we can put aside the common follies, the popular misunderstandings, the crass and lurid errors of men and many societies, and pause beyond the impoverished beliefs of those who denigrate such glory, then we can truly view a beauty that can so raise the mind that we become humbled before its strength; privileged indeed to use light or pigment to express something of its goodness to another.

Such truth is the beauty of a woman - one we must value and extol if we would walk a little further in expressing the glories of both creation and redemption.