Beauty Revealed

Friends of a Season

Last month, I ran into a friend from college. We’ll call her L. She and I are both mothers now, trying to navigate adulting, parenthood, and finding what it means to be a woman seeking the Lord in our daily lives.

When we met in our degree classes, L was a brand new believer. She was seeking the Lord and proclaiming Him to the world in both her words and actions. She lived with integrity and honored Christ in her choices. 

On a different area of that spectrum, I had been a Christ-follower for ten or eleven years. I was in a stage of rebellion, questioning how God would affect my life at all. I was dating a man who was angry at God and couldn’t fathom being someone who even attended church, let alone followed Christ. He had been hurt by the church, by people, as is often the case with angry people.

But I was struck by L’s confidence and fervor for Jesus. She wasn’t naive. She knew that pain, heartache, struggle, and sin are all part of the human experience. But she was surrounding herself with others running after Christ. She was fresh in her relationship with the Lord and emanated a new peace in how she lived. She made me long for that relationship with my Lord for myself again.

Sweet Aroma

In Ephesians 5, Paul instructs the people to Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. 2 Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

L was a sweet aroma for Christ then, and is still a pleasing aroma to God now. Her husband is one of my close friend’s cousins, so I get to see L and her family at my friend’s kids’ birthdays. She met her husband not long after college, and together they have been pursuing Christ in their life together.

When we unexpectedly met again last month, L and I caught up, covering what you don’t see on social media to each other. And once again, L encouraged me in ways that I’m not sure anyone else has in this life. She is radiant with her love for her children, her husband, her family and friends… and even more her love for Christ. 

I believe some people are simply that: radiant. They echo the love they have found in Jesus to everyone they meet. They reflect Christ’s light into this world by being genuinely kind human beings who are interested in you and what matters to you. 

L is not a saint. She is not an angel. She is not on a different level than humanity. She is human, including all we experience. But she is a sweet aroma of Christ, for Christ. 

Joy in Creation

As we connected in new ways, we also shared our newfound joy in our respective crafts: crochet for her and quilts for me. She said, “I can’t help but see how God is glorified when we, as His creation, find joy in creating.”

That struck me. I think we both have been seeking something innate in the young years of motherhood – something that many women feel they have either lost or can’t grasp while our children are so constantly near. And yet, it is innate in wholly other ways. We are drawn to the act of creating, because we see new facets of the Father’s love as His creation. 

I totally get this. I thrive by producing new beautiful items that will be loved, cherished, and used in ways I may never know. I have a sense of accomplishment, but more so find joy in making the world an even more beautiful place. 

By adding to the beauty in this world in my small way, I find a glimpse of how God the Father added beauty to this world by creating me. By creating you. By creating our families, our friends, our children, our siblings, our relationships with others, the way we relate to the world, the creatures of the land and sea, plants, the whole earth itself… God made beauty.

I could cry at that thought. That God would love me enough to choose to make me beautiful in His eyes. That God knew all the parts of me, every ugly thought or choice, every question at His existence, every choice to push boundaries in my life, every time I would choose selfishly at someone’s expense… 

But God still chose ME. And not only that, but He chose to make ME beautiful. 

Once again, L’s sweet aroma of Christ has illuminated how well God loves me, as His creation. I know she said it to me, but the same applies to you… 

God chose to create you. 

Not only that, God chose all of you [see list of uglies above].

AND, God made you beautiful to Him. 

Do you know that God designed you as part of the beauty in this world?

God designed us to imitate Christ. God designed us to radiate Christ’s love to others in our orbit. God designed us to have a relationship with Him. 

Feel free to reach out if you have questions. I am an email away (leahhonnen@gmail.com).

Written by Leah Honnen. 
Leah Honnen is a wife, momma, and infertility warrior living in Jacksonville, IL. She is a homemaker and volunteers at her church, but loves spending time fixing up her pre-1920s home with her husband, John. Leah writes on the lessons she continues to learn in daily life – through infertility, motherhood, music, friendships, and more on Instagram @leahhonnen.