Secret Beauty

Beauty—there is something beautiful about the desert rose that blooms where no one sees.

God sees.

Crafted each petal crevice.

Delights in the blushing shades.

Holds it in the heat.

Wills it into bloom.

Sustains each seeking root.

The desert rose exists only for him. Its single eye, single heart, is for him, him alone. Its beauty for God Most High, God Most Near, alone.

And both find joy.

My Father, your Father, knows what is done in secret. 

Pause. Personalize. In the secret, with him. 

He delights in you. 

“O LORD my God, you are with me.

    a mighty one who has and will save me;

you rejoice over me with gladness;

    you quiet me by your love;

you exult over me with loud singing”

(Zeph. 3:17, personalized)

He holds you in the heat. 

“For you have been a stronghold to me, a stronghold to me in my distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat” (Isa. 25:4, personalized)

He wills you to bloom, calling you forth. 

“You, my child, I have made righteous in my Son;

You are a branch of my planting, the work of my hands,

    that I might be glorified….

I call you an oak of righteousness,

The planting of the LORD, that I may be glorified”

(Isa. 60:2, 61:3, personalized)

He sustains each seeking root of yours. 

“Cast your burden on me, the Lord, and I will sustain you; I will never permit you, my righteous, to be moved…I have borne you before your birth, carried you from the womb, even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made you, and I will bear you; I will carry you and I will save you” (Ps. 55:22; Ia. 46:3b-4, personalized).

May you have a single eye, single heart for him. 

“Blessed are you, my pure in heart child with the purity of my Beloved Son, for you will see me, your Father” (Mt. 5:8, personalized)