Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, August 16, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Beauty is subjective. Those of us who live in cultures in which we are daily inundated with highly targeted messages about what constitutes beauty might doubt that. We are told from our earliest moments that only certain characteristics can be objectively construed as beauty: thinness, certain shades of skin, certain shapes of eyes, noses, cheeks, lips, certain textures of hair. We are sold an idealized image that, when we fail to live up to it, causes us to see ourselves as undesirable.
That image is a lie. Each and every one of us is created in God’s image, whole and beautiful. Each and every one of deserves to be seen and loved in the way that the groom in Song of Solomon sees his bride. Not because she is some ideal, but because he loves her. So much, in fact, that a single glance from her “ravishes” his heart. Know this, God loves you in this way, and sees you as so breathtakingly beautiful, it takes God’s breath away.
What makes me feel beautiful?
