"Of Psyche's beauty—at every age the beauty proper to that age—there is only this to be said, that there were no two opinions about it, from man or woman, once she had been seen...She made beauty all round her. When she trod on mud, the mud was beautiful; when she ran in the rain, the rain was silver. When she picked up a toad—she had the strangest and, I thought, unchanciest love for all manner of brutes—the toad became beautiful."
- C.S. Lewis, "Till We Have Faces."
Comment:
It's amazing how many things we are inclined to interpret individualistically, egocentrically, and even selfishly. Consider freedom. Most of us understand freedom as something we possess for ourselves. I am free to do what I want. I am free from other people, free from restrictions, free for myself. But what if true freedom is the opposite: to be free from ourselves and free for others? Free to love the way we ought. Free to do the things we know we ought to do. Free from selfishness and ambition and pride. Consider also our gifts and abilities. We tend to consider these our our personal possessions. We earned them, we deserve them! But what if our gifts and abilities were given us (by God) not merely for our own benefit and amusement, but for the purpose of blessing others?
Consider beauty. Most of us think of beauty as something we possess for ourselves. And we'll do anything to get it - plastic surgery, botox, crazy diets, fanatic exercise, etc. What is our motivation, honestly? Is it to bolster our own self-image, to impress others, to get what we want (from others), maybe even improve our status? As with other gifts and abilities that come from our Creator, we need to ask: “Am I pursuing this for me or for others?” Of course, God does bless us and He wants us to delight in His gifts, but He blesses us to be a blessing. He gives to us so that we might give to others out of the abundance we have received.
I like this portrayal of beauty that C.S. Lewis gives us. Psyche did not horde her beauty. Her beauty was like sunlight that brightened the lives of others, like cool water that brought refreshment to all who drank her in. She was no idol. She didn't use her beauty to consume and control, but to bring joy and encouragement to others. I think this is a much needed corrective for our culture, which has twisted beauty into an idolatrous and sometimes oppressive power.
