Beauty can be deceptive. Sometimes what we think is beautiful, isn't. Sometimes what we think is good, isn't. Sometimes we know it isn't beautiful the closer we get, but we close our eyes, so as to not see the danger. We plod ahead because we want to, and then, when we finally open our eyes, what we thought was beautiful is actually ugly, very ugly.
Beauty can be trickery, and sometimes beauty can be a trap into sin. Think of David, the king on the roof of his palace, looking down upon Bathsheba, the wife of one of his trusted soldiers. She was bathing, she was beautiful, and she was married.
2 Samuel 11:2-5 (NASB) 2Sa 11:2 Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. 5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I am pregnant." (emphasis mine.)
Have you ever seen buzzards flying afar off? High in the sky? They are truly beautiful and skilled flyers. They look like beautiful hawks from a distance and when they are aflight surfing the thermals as experts of the sky they are beautiful indeed. Then, when you see a buzzard on the ground, up close, the beauty is gone and we are often repulsed by their appearance and their duty - to eat the dead bodies that accumulate in the wild before they rot. What the buzzards do is beneficial, they are "good birds!" But you don't know how ugly they are from a distance, only when you get closer do we truly and accurately see enough to be repulsed.
That is the way temptation and sin is... from a distance it always appears "beautiful," but then we get close enough to burn ourselves, our family, our reputations, our image before God. In my ministry and counseling practice I see people give it all up, lose it all due to a choice to do the wrong thing before God, their family, their community, and themselves. Then, when it is all gone we look to God and say we made a "mistake."
A famous politician just did this and after years of subtrefuge and outright lying he partially "came clean." The half-truth will not set you free and in the end that politician will have to answer to God and trust me, with God, there are no half-truths.
God looks beyond our ugly sin and loves us just the same, but He is most interested in our repentance and obedience to Him and of His Law. We CAN come to Christ "just as we are" but if we truly come to Christ we cannot help but to be changed. Sometimes we have to come to Jesus daily to confess our sins, I know I do... Remember this; keep short accounts with God. Study God's Word. Talk with God, daily...
Trust me on this, your eyesight will be better because He will help you to see, buzzards are pretty too, from a distance.
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