He is God and He is Beautiful! He left His Throne, wrapped Himself in flesh and walked this earth. Not for Himself, but because He Loves you and me. This selfless act in and of itself was, is, ever will be...Beautiful!

But, what does 'He' really look like? Have you ever wondered? I know that the Bible says we are made in His image but, what about His features? Is He indeed, physically beautiful? In my eyes He is, because He is...Our Redeemer! I believe that ‘Who’ He is makes Him Beautiful, and one day He’s coming back in all His Glory! Radiant and Shining, we shall all...behold Him! Yes! All those who believe His Word can embrace this promise and look forward to it.  

However, do you know when I think He was 'most' Beautiful? Do you know when I think His Glory and Majesty shone forth with such an Audacious Splendid Regality as the world had never seen before and will never see again? It is when I think back to a time over two thousand years ago...to the day of His Crucifixion.  

I imagine...He could barely stand. What with the weight of all our sins upon Him and having endured such a severe beating, He labored under His Cloak of Humanity. His strength practically gone, He was weak...Physically. Yet, with His eyes stayed on the Promises of the Divine, He was kept Strong...Spiritually. The Word of God leads us to know that at that time, as a result of the torture inflicted upon Him, his face was so grotesque and disfigured, that He was unrecognizable. It says, He was totally 'undesirable'(Is53:1-9). 

Look at Him! He sagged from the physical punishment He had just been subjected to. Look! His body had become the recipient of endless vicious attacks... punches, whip of nail lashes... that must have affected every organ within! Still, look further...gaze His eyes, His lips, His nose...His Face! Having been repeatedly battered and plummeted by the angry, heavy fists of the stout soldiers, His entire face was bruised, discolored and swollen. The peripheral fluids, broken capillaries and cells...ran freely through His torn flesh. This escaping life-giving substance mingled with even more that steadily flowed from His brow, where a crown of sharp, piercing thorns had been forced and embedded into His forhead and skull. Understandably, He swayed. He could barely see in the natural, but my God...! The things He saw Spiritually!

Behold Him! His assaulted body staggering as He grimaced from the pain that seared throughout. It is no wonder at all that He, with pronounced unsteady gait, when made to bare the weight of the heavy wooden cross... fell...three times. Finally, the possessed Roman soldiers could see if they wanted the pleasure of crucifying Him on Golgotha, they had to get Him some help. So, they made a man by the name of Simon of Cyrene help Him.  And they led Him to Calvary where they...'nailed' Him...to the Cross.

No doubt, with human eyes, we look at the scene and say, 'not a pretty picture...no beauty there'. But I beg to differ! My Lord, what Beauty was beheld there on that day!

Let us leave behind our self-imposed limitations and take a deeper look at this picture...opening our spiritual eyes! There, do you see it?! Remember Who He was! He was Spirit! He was Son! He was God!!! Yet, He refused to use His Divine Powers. His Divine Powers were always at His disposal, 'if' He wanted to use them. They had never left Him...He could have used His Powers! He still had them – He always did! It is ultra important to grasp the fact that He had...never...lost His ability to defend Himself, but He chose not to...because of His 'Love' for you and for me! Indeed, with this understanding in mind, our appreciation for that broken, subjected Body and...that Face...that distorted, beaten Face, which endured torture for you and me, must take on a new,  profoundly deeper, dimension!  

I can't speak for you but, Oh, My Lord and My God, how I Love 'that Face'! I idolize and will forever be grateful for...'that Face'. Every mar! Every tear! Every disfigurement upon it is a 'treasured thing' so precious to me! I never want the memory of 'that Face' to leave me. I never want it to dim. I want it to live forever with me...in me, through me, over-shadowing me! I never want the thought of 'that Face' to become a now-and-again, non-chalant, casual remembrance that has lost it's appeal ...in the grand shadow of who 'I' think 'I' am. For without 'that Face' I ...am nothing'!

Thus, emphatically No! Not 'ever' do I want to forget...the Awesome, Opulent, Unmatchable 'Beauty' of...Calvary's...Face! 

Gen1:27, Ps27:4, 50:2, 89:15, 

Is 33:17 & 53:1-5, Heb 12:2

copyright; jmsbell/2012