Women are powerful creatures.With a glance, we can raise a man’s hopes
or wither his self-esteem
often leaving me to wonder why
burka-enforcing men think it safe
to leave a window
for the laser-beam of a woman’s eyes.
Women are a force.
Beautiful women use this force
to create life
(childbirth being only one avenue for this birthing)
It also emerges through our art, our work, our words, our ways
our homebuilding, business-building, fund-raising, consciousness raising,
our organizing and administrating,
our generosity, our curiosity,
our peacemaking and our cake baking,
our wound-binding and our child-minding,
our passion released and our voices unleashed,
our coming, our going, our telling, our showing,
our hips, our lips, our trips, and even our slips can be used to create life
for the beautiful woman is a force
and the power fueling her is
none other than the laminin of the universe,
Jesus Christ
through whom her magnificence is focused like a beam of light
made brilliant and surgical and magical and luminous through
the lens of His broken risen body.
Ugly women are forces as well.
Destructive, soul-sucking, heart-crushing,
mistresses of death
and deception
who supplant men’s dreams
with starless wormholes
leading to relentless caverns of insatiable want
and ravenous, greedy demanding dens of darkness and endless gloom.
Here’s the tricky part:
ugly women appropriate beauty
as a clever disguise
while beautiful women may be hidden
beneath a surface with small initial appeal
so one has to search
with diligence,
with diligence,
and the lazy heart is likely
to be ensnared by a Medusa
before realizing his mistake.
Like King Herod.
Enraptured by the beautiful mask
artfully worn by his brother’s ugly wife
he allowed his smaller self
to follow her (or lead her) into adultery
and when she lured him even deeper
into her toxic darkness
with her ugly undulating daughter’s unveiled treasures
like a fly he found himself
adhered to her web,
forced to behead God’s man
or eat his own pride
but John’s skull stuck in his throat
and I daresay when Herod faces judgment
he won’t be recalling Salome’s dance
with any sense of allure.
False beauty is like that.
It leaves an after-taste
like cigarettes and stale-beer
a morning-after sense of disgust and shame
sure to receive a million hits
in your mental YouTube
and there’s no escaping an ugly woman’s sticky mess
without washing in the Living Water of Christ.
A beautiful woman
is a fount of living water,
it springs forth from within her
because she’s embraced the source
and she refreshes all she touches
with her bold and generous heart.
When she dances, she is not unveiled.
Her beauty is guarded behind the gates of wisdom,
grace,
and restraint
and it is revealed only to those diligent enough
and brave enough
and patient enough
and loving enough
to be found worthy of witnessing her brilliance and light.
Once a man has witnessed this
he loses his taste for ugly women.
A beautiful woman is a life-force like a super nova.
Be that woman.
Seek that woman.
Leave the ugly women
to perform for the insatiable, lie-loving masses
deluded by the prince of the air
playing deceitful tunes on his pipe and
blowing smoke into the mirrors of the age.
Soon enough, the freak show that it is will be revealed
and there will be weeping, wailing, sorrow
and many hands grasping for an illusion that isn’t there.
But not you.
For you will come to Christ
and you will be a beautiful woman.
And you will come to Christ
and you will seek a woman who has established her beauty
within the very source of all life.
And on that day, you will embrace the beautiful woman at your side
and she will embrace you
and together you will ride off into the Light.
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The Conversation
I’m starting to sense a theme…or at least a message for my heart. I haven’t felt very “beautiful” lately. Perhaps it is the reality of age and waning stamina…not to mention extra poundage…God has been calling me to look inward. Thank you for joining his chorus…I want to be beautiful inside, if not out.
Let your beauty rise from within where Christ has made His home in your heart and it will radiate outward. Think of the people who have loved you, Tina. When you picture them, aren’t they lovely? This is how they picture you, as well.
Lori this is a masterpiece. The slow dawning of what is truly ugly or beautiful. So much of the Bible revolves around Two Different Women and Two Different Cities. You have captured this. Now top it off with Psalm 45.
Wow, I’m going to hold this comment close to my heart all week. Thank you.
Very profound – like a poem. Ode to Godly Women.
Thank you.
profound – I like that.
Wow! I won’t look in the mirror and despair about the aging woman I see. I’ll look within and check for beauty or ugliness and look for the woman Christ sees when He looks at me. Beautifully written direction for us all. You’ve done it again, girl. MOMMA
You are very beautiful, Mom. I hope I look just like you.
P0Werfully poetic truth of how we are groomed for love or rejection, for beauty or ugly, for Divine fulfilment or the devil’s dearth. I’m going to write my own poem now!
Wow…great post Lori.
Always on time and carrying God’s word into our daily lives, Lori. I agree … it’s poetry and full of truth. Wrinkles will come (and they have). We can’t control that, but we can control what goes into our hearts and flows from our spirit. Thank you for reminding us all what it truly means to be a woman, with or without the world’s recognition.
God Bless.