Have you ever been to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that didn't look like it was going to amount to much, but then you had an incredible meal that made you completely reconsider your initial assessment? Maybe the menus were faded and you had to wait a long time for your food, and maybe you were almost ready to leave when the food came and you were amazed at what was hidden beneath the surface. Maybe the cook was so focused on the food that they weren't too concerned about the outside appearance.
God could have created Jesus as a person so externally beautiful that he would have been distracting to look at. We know that God's glory is so overwhelming that no one can look upon God and live -- even Moses had to be hidden in a cleft of a rock when God's glory passed by. But that's not where Christ's beauty was -- the true beauty of Christ was in who he was, in how he loved, in the grace he poured out. He was rejected, for the world was looking for another kind of beauty, and we completely missed the beauty of Christ.
How gracious is God that we have the chance to look upon the beauty of Christ despite our initial rejection. Despite humanity's rejection, Christ died for us anyway. Despite despising God in human form, God rose from the dead and invited us into God's eternal kingdom, showing us God's eternal beauty, and we know the sinfulness of humanity will be broken and our eyes will be able to capture the true beauty of God forever.
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