Beauty is a Flame

Beholding beauty is much more than “taking a look” or “flashing a glance” in the direction of something pretty. It’s more than a pause — it’s stopping to gaze.

Beholding beauty is the moment radiance captures more than just your attention, but begins to grip your heart.

As you learn to look, you are being pulled into the very beauty that you are beholding. It’s not a beauty to own, but a beauty that allows you to participate in it. Every other thing fades into the periphery, and what you are in front of is all there is to your imagination.

Beauty is truly wonderful because it has a subtle strength that is able to overwhelm you until it consumes each faculty that it passes through. Simultaneously, it pierces your heart, soul, and mind — taking each one on a journey until they are all pulsing with awe and wonder. This kind of beauty is more than shiny; it’s transformative.

Fascination draws the heart until it captures all of your desires. As fascination deepens its gaze, it also grips your longings for more of what you see. Almost unaware, the beauty you are consumed with now integrates into the whole of your being. You are now integrated into the joy of shared sight and a mutual delight. True beauty has eyes looking back at you. Once you feel the warmth of overwhelming radiance and embrace the details hidden from the common look, you are being transformed into the likeness of the beauty you are beholding.

The evidence of fascination reveals that a mature obsession is growing. One of the primary impacts of fascination is that it moves your sensibilities and impacts your perspective. Immediately, you grow in awareness and deepen your peace. Over time, your fascination will come with appetites that fuel more wonder. There is a profound discovery: you now crave more than a moment with beauty — you want to live surrounded by beauty. Your affections will follow fascination. It will ultimately affect every desire and decision of your life.

This is what it means to have the “fear of the Lord.” It’s not terror — it’s overwhelming awe of infinite beauty. In the midst of that degree of immense beauty, you will either hide yourself from it or marry yourself to it. Each decision you make is an indicator of what you behold the most. Whatever is garnering your undivided attention drives your affections until it transforms your entire being.

A raw encounter with genuine beauty usually has a seismic effect because subtle adjustments were made to keep the beauty in pure sight. This kind of relationship will take your breath away — only to teach you how to breathe again. Only this time, peacefully, deeply, and wholly attentive to the beauty you are aimed toward.

Mesmerized, you stare so deeply and intently that your eye of imagination begins to travel on every pathway of conceived thought and delightful truth. Trouble will fade as flames of fascination consume every concerned corner of the mind. There has never been a time where true beauty didn’t deepen the embrace of love. This is why all things considered beautiful move you into a tender affection of heart. You are no longer the same — you are being raptured and entwined into something more consuming than you could even imagine. It’s now a way of being that began with a prolonged look.

There is only One beauty that can capture the heart like this. The beauty of God is in the full counsel of His goodness, brilliantly displayed in the person of Jesus. Each act of compassion and mercy is a glimpse into the true nature of a loving Father — the synchronicity of Father, Son, and Spirit bound to one another by love.

The truth of the Father was veiled until the mystery was made known in Jesus. Everything beautiful is summed up in the jealous commitment of the cross — all love, all joy, and all fulfillment in that degree of love that would cause His life to be given for mine. Because this kind of love came into full focus, the veil was torn, and all of love’s passion was felt from what we see in His suffering. What was gained in this suffering could not be measured in any greater way than what was happening in humanity. The lie of separation was made known through the selfless surrender that could heal the most wounded hearts. This love helped us to see beauty for ashes.

Due to this selfless obsession, love is made known, and beauty is in full spectrum for all who are willing to look again! The same love the Father has for Jesus, He has for me! The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead also lives in me! This unveiling causes what was previously unknowable to now be completely accessible.

The light of this love has made me blind to so many inferior possibilities. Nothing fascinates my eye, captures my heart, integrates my desires, or transforms my life like the beauty I find in Jesus. I am now entwined with the beauty I behold in Him. At each glance, I learn to gaze into a deeper place of desire. Each day, a new mercy to look again, so I can discover more than one look could hold. The beauty of Jesus is a flame that is consuming every fiber of my humanity. It feels like life more abundantly.

I am finding out that each day is new, but nothing is different for my heart. I WANT ONE THING… TO BEHOLD THE BEAUTY OF JESUS!