Finding Beauty in the Ordinary

I recently learned from Eugene Peterson's book The Jesus Way that when the sculptor, Rodin, would instruct his students, he would tell them, "don't look for a good-looking model, some perfectly proportioned specimen--take anyone you come across. They are all beautiful." Somehow, we've exchanged what is truly beautiful for counterfeits and cheap substitutes. Men exchange the unique beauty of their wives for imposters on a screen. They trade their wives, beautiful with wrinkles and dimples and scars and blemishes, a relief map of a lifetime lived, for two dimensional on screen attempts to portray what society commands should be beautiful. Wives look beyond husbands who possess a lifetime of emotions and thoughts and motivations-- real people--swapping them for pulp characters who lacks nuance, who are lifeless.

Our magazine covers look the same. Our actors look the same. Our hamburgers look the same.

We have attempted to homogenize what is meant to be unique.

Every person you meet is breathtakingly beautiful. Every sunrise, every sunset unique. Every meal, every conversation, every day, a joy to behold.

Slow down and breathe delight.