Minimalism: When Your Eye Is Good

If you've been following my Lenten series, you know I'm clearing out the clutter in my closets, one closet per week.I was reading recently about how Lent is a time of spring-cleaning our hearts for the risen Christ and the joy of the Resurrection. Scripture is full of this concept--renewing the mind, cleaning the insides (Romans 12:2; Matthew 23:26).It makes me think, strangely enough, of the old saying, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."The classic use of this maxim is a baby so ugly only its mother could love it. Or an unattractive spouse married to an attractive one. Whispers abound about how beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That it's just that person's opinion (and what a wacko he/she must be for thinking so).When I think of this maxim, I think of humanity. A race so ugly only the Creator could love it. Certainly the demons are confused by the love of God towards the filthy vermin that is mankind. Or as Screwtape puts it, "His inveterate love of degrading the whole spiritual world with unnatural liaisons with the two-legged animals" (The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis).But God's love for us is not an opinion, neither is the demons' hatred. God's love is simply a reflection of who He is, of His goodness. The demons' hate is also simply a reflection of their evil.God perceives us as beautiful.The demons distort us as evil (and go to great lengths to infect us with their evil to prove their point).So we are beautiful (Song of Songs 1:15). God says so. He calls us to a life of beauty with every word that proceeds from His mouth (Matthew 4:4).Back down here on earth, it struck me recently the kinship between this maxim (Beauty is in the eye of the beholder), and this Bible verse: "The lamp of the body is the eye. When your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light" (Matthew 6:22).When your eye is full of light, you see things with the light of God. You see the beauty in the things the demons call ugly. You find hope in the darkest corner.When your eye is full of darkness, when your heart has been tainted by sin, you cast that darkness out everywhere you look. Even gifts from God Himself are despised in your heart (Genesis 25:34). Your eye sees ugliness everywhere.As Frederica Mathewes-Green puts it, "[Sin] damages our ability even to perceive reality. We misunderstand other people because our minds are clouded by our passions and our sins." We look at people around us and see ugliness, unaware that often it's our own ugliness (or insecurity if you prefer) being projected outwards.Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Is your eye beautiful and full of light? Or is it ugly and full of darkness? Full of criticism? Full of negativity?What's beautiful is righteousness. What's ugly is sin.All people, in the eyes of God, have beauty. He looked at His creation and saw that it was good.Yet we go around whispering about this person's clothing choice or that person's makeup and call it beauty or ugliness, when in truth it only tells us if we are beautiful or if we are ugly. As Audrey Hepburn puts it, "You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him."So take Lent to examine your mind, your heart, and your eye. When you look at others, do you see only things to criticize or demean, or do you see them as God sees them--beautiful and good. Does your eye need a little spring cleaning?And just in case no one told you today--YOU are beautiful, YOU are good. God is calling you to live in that way, in His light, in His love.