Will you still love me
In “Young and Beautiful” Lana Del Rey sings: “Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?” And the next line says, “Will you still love me when I'm not young and beautiful?” Wow! What happens if you are old and beautiful? Young and beautiful trumps that?
I was led to the question: do I love you because you’re beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you? With my experience of love as a blessing from God, I can honestly say, “We were young and beautiful once. Now we are no longer young.” We do get more beautiful with age and by growing in God’s grace. That is our goal.
With God our beauty does not depend on youth and its physical attributes. When we are finished products and ready to meet our God, we may look more like the raisin than the grape. Our scars will show our true beauty. When we have been broken so many times and mended with seams of gold, our vessel will shine with glory.
The face of Saint Teresa of India depicts the true beauty of a finished saint. Every line of her face is a tribute to all she did in her life of service. I am reminded of my father’s face after his life’s work and after cancer took his life. He was the image of a finished Christ. And that was beauty of an eternal nature.
Del Rey’s song should pose the question: “Will you still recognize my beauty when I am old?” Age and ill health will change our physical appearance. As objects of beauty, we remain the same. As God’s creation, we move toward his intended purpose for us. You marriage partner, you parent or grandparent may not stand upright anymore, but love makes them beautiful. God’s love continues to make us more beautiful as we fulfill God’s plan for us.
Love is what we need. Pope Francis says, “Nothing happens in vain, and no situation in which a Christian finds himself is completely unresponsive to love. No night is so long that it makes us forget the joy of the dawn. And the darker the night is, the closer the dawn.”
Whatever our situation in life, and life has its challenges, if we are sure of our faith in Jesus and know how tenderly our Father holds us, we can love others. We can bless them with our presence.
The wind blows and all is dust.
We go on creating the beautiful,
the original, while all around us
Dust is falling.
We bring out the best, the beauty, in each other. You have heard and probably have seen that brides are always beautiful. The promise of future love brings that about. Husband and wife bring out the best in each other, and their beauty grows.
Classical literature gives us a clear example. Beauty and the Beast is a story about a young prince who was cast under a spell. His spell could only be broken by true love. Through many ups and downs, he found love with Beauty, and she, in time, returned his love. The prince's spell is broken, and they live happily ever after.
The moral of their tale echoed throughout the kingdom: True beauty lies in the purity of one’s heart and the trans formative power of love. And so, the story of Beauty and the Beast became a timeless legend, reminding us of the power of love.
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