I am Beautiful.

I have recently started my journey through the Book of Exodus. With an imagination like mine, it feels like watching a movie. Starting from where I left off the last time I read Chapter 25. I stopped at Chapter 26 because nothing really made sense to me. I skipped the chapters I thought say of the same things and went for the next “happening”. I was reading Chapter 32 when something inside me said I should go back. Go back to Chapter 26!

I don't know why I did but I did.

Patiently I read and absorbed every word and was surprisingly amazed by every single description it gave of what Moses should do to prepare a tabernacle.

Let’s rewind a bit. Moses was chosen by God to lead the Israelites out of the slavery from Egypt. After Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, He received instructions on how to prepare the tabernacle, offerings, vests and rituals that God wants them to do in order to please Him. God gave very specific instructions for the grand things down to the minutest detail. I highly suggest you read them from Exodus to get a full view but here are a few examples:

“Have them make a chest of acacia wood – 2 ½ cubits long, a cubit and ½ wide, and a cubit and ½ high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it.”

“Make a lampstand of pure gold and hammer it out, base and shaft; its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms shall be of one piece with it.”

“Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand.”

“Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman.”

“At these two corners they must be double from the bottom all the way to the top, and fitted into a single ring; both shall be like that. So there will be 8 frames and 16 silver bases – two under each frame.”

I was awed by the meticulous eyes of my Father on art and beauty. He does not want to rush things just to get it done. He carefully looks at every detail and turns a simple thing into an adorable piece. I thought, if He can give these instructions to Moses to the dot for Moses to come up with the best tabernacle and offerings that will please His eyes, what more beauty and greatness can His own hands bring?

I looked at the mirror and noticed my long black hair, my thick eyebrows, my not-so-pointed funny nose, my heart-shaped lips, my heart-shaped face and my small soft ears. I looked at my hands and noticed how small they are, almost like a kid’s. I smiled at the thought that I crave for ice cream “more” when I am sad or about to cry, that I love to dance and write and take photos. I pouted on the fact that I can’t swim despite so many attempts to learn. You see, I may not be the most beautiful woman in the world. In fact, I may not be beautiful at all in the eyes of anyone. I may not pass the standards of Hollywood or Cosmopolitan,  not even halfway!

…BUT I was fearfully, carefully and wonderfully made by my Father in Heaven therefore I AM BEAUTIFUL!

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are beautiful. I know that full well.”

Psalm 139: 13-14