The Song of Solomon celebrates physical beauty. The concept of beauty has been somewhat fluid down through the ages. One hundred years ago the quintessential beauty would have looked quite different to today. There are also differences across cultures as to what beauty consists of in a person. So, beauty is not an objective thing and neither should it be. Yet, in our time, we are in danger of objectifying it. The concept of beauty has become homogenised through the mass media, and it is both unnatural and damaging at times. This is injuring our ability to appreciate the wonderful diversity of the human image. In addition to this, images in advertising and on social media are invariably ‘touched up’, so we have created a taste for something that isn’t even real! Men and women therefore strive for physical ideals that aren’t realistic and this, again, threatens people’s ability to recognise different forms of beauty in others. Beauty has many faces, but we are being robbed of the ability to recognise this. Men and women are being robbed of a sense of contentment in how they are made. The other problem is that beauty has been sexualised in a way that cheapens the human image and creates further discontentment. Beauty is so much deeper than this and, as Christians, we should help people to recognise this. As we see things differently, we can enable people to see themselves and others differently.
Ask God to help you to see things as he does.
Read Song of Solomon 4 and 5
