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Beautiful

What is beautiful to you?  A sunset?  A newborn baby?  Love?




“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” – Plato. So, if that’s true, sacrifice is beautiful to me.

What I mean by sacrifice is “giving up” or “laying down” – that kind of sacrifice.  Webster defines sacrifice as “forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one thought to have a greater value or claim.”


A wife and mother giving up “her” time to study God’s Word.

A husband loving his wife through thick and thin.

A soldier or sailor giving up their youth, fighting for their country.

A missionary, leaving the comforts of home, to witness for Jesus.



Those examples of sacrifice are “beautiful” to me.

Romans 10:14-15 says

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

There’s a “beautiful” song, written by Twila Paris, that says it best:



How Beautiful

\How Beautiful the hands that served
The Wine and the Bread and the sons of the earth.
How beautiful the feet that walked
The long dusty roads and the hill to the cross.
How Beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ.
 
How Beautiful the heart that bled
That took all my sin and bore it instead.
How beautiful the tender eyes
That choose to forgive and never despise.
How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ.
 
And as He lay down His life
We offer this sacrifice.
That we will live just as He died
Willing to pay the price,
Willing to pay the price.
 
How Beautiful the radiant bride
Who waits for her Groom with His light in her eyes.
How Beautiful when humble hearts give
The fruit of pure lives so that others may live.
How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ
 
How beautiful the feet that bring
The sound of good news and the love of the King.
How Beautiful the hands that serve
The wine and the bread and the sons of the Earth.

How Beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ.


How beautiful - the Body of Christ – both the physical body of our Savior and the church (you and me).

May God, Who is rich in mercy and grace, open our eyes to the “beauty” every day of His Sacrifice – the one true Sacrifice.  The most beautiful of all.

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