Beauty is Fate

I thought this was neat, so I figured I'd share... The day I start my "beauty" blog, I get the following as my daily devotional:


Not long ago, at the home of some friends who live in the tropics, I saw a most extraordinary flowering plant on a table. It was circular in shape, as large as a basketball, and thickly covered with the most beautiful hibiscus blossoms in every imaginable shade of yellow and red and lavender. The effect was stunning. I couldn’t imagine how a single plant could produce so many radiant hues, and I said so.


Our hostess, Julia, smiled and lifted one of the blooms. When she did, I saw that the stem of the flower had been neatly impaled on the needle-pointed spike of a Spanish bayonet, that ominous-looking member of the cactus family whose bristling spears, like a porcupine’s quills, can inflict painful wounds on the unwary.

“Hibiscus blossoms last only a day,” Julia said, “so every morning I pick a basketful and ‘plant’ them on the spines of the Spanish bayonet. Makes a colorful display, doesn’t it?”
“Amazing,” I said. “Whose idea was it?”

“Oh, mine, I guess,” said Julia casually. “It’s fun to change ugliness into beauty, don’t you think?”

Yes, it is. And it doesn’t have to be limited to plants or flowers, either. You can overlay sharp words with kind ones. You can replace a frown with a smile. You can decorate a damaged relationship with an apology. You can brighten indifference with caring.

Lord, show us the way to fill the world with Your beauty.

—Arthur Gordon