Isaiah 53:1-4

¹Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. ³ He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. What a way to imagine our God, our Jesus, our saviour! Yet, we humans often look at the outward appearance and make judgments. By that premise, we would walk past Jesus and not see Him.

The Bible says that Saul was handsome and favoured by the people, yet God rejected him. Likewise, Absolum, David’s son, was also described as extremely handsome (2 Samuel 14:25-26) and still he committed a great sin, resulting in his demise. Beauty does not make us better, nor does it profit our eternal selves.

The Bible tells us that God does not look at the outward appearance but at the heart. But we do. We often judge by the outward appearance and are judged by it. But we often see in the Bible that a favourable outward appearance didn’t get them closer to God. The Bible even tells us that Jesus wasn’t beautiful. So why do we spend so much time on our outward appearance?

The Bible tells us that our hearts are sinful and wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). So even though God does not look at my outward appearance, he looks at my sinful and wicked heart. So how is that any better? He will see my ugly heart!… 

But he is trying to show us that it was never intended that we should be on our own. We are sinful and ugly on our own, but we are complete when we have Him. When we have God, we can be perfect and without sin. Only when we realize we need Him to be our perfect selves can we begin the process towards becoming our beautiful selves? So with Him, we are complete and beautiful. And this is the true beauty that last.