November 9 - 1 Peter 3: Beautiful not Invisible

A woman's core terror is invisibility. We all struggle at some level with never being fully loved as we desire. In the midst of even the best marriages, families, work, ministry, volunteering, homemaking, and the many other tasks and relationships we juggle, we can still feel missed. Like nobody notices us beyond our contributions - and sometimes they don't even notice those. We can feel as though we're not worth someone really exploring and getting to know us at the deepest levels of our souls.

What is Peter, a man, saying to us in this chapter that addresses this core fear? Through God's perfect understanding of us and perfectly creating us as His image-bearers, Peter is saying a lot in just a few words,

What matters is not your outer appearance—the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes—but your inner disposition.

Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in. The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way, and were good, loyal wives to their husbands. Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as “my dear husband.” You’ll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.  (v. 4-6)

For those of us who grew up with Bible teaching, there was a generous dose of admonitions to be "gentle and quiet." Often with the interpretation that women who talked too much were the offenders and women who kept their mouths shut were the obedient ones. But, I have know many absolutely beautiful women of God who have much to say and many women who don't say anything yet are resentful or not revealing the beauty God has placed in them by refusing to speak up. So, these simplistic definitions don't work.

Let's redefine "a gentle and quiet spirit" with the Spirit's help. A woman with a gentle and quiet spirit knows that she can't be destroyed so she doesn't live with walls up. She can rest in anyone's presence. She has repented of her self-protective strategies to release who she is as an image-bearer of God.  (Crabb)

Peter refers us to Sarah as an example. Sarah? The woman who laughed at God? Who controlled, planned and strategized to get her own way and produce a child? Yes, she is God's inspired example of "inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in."

In Genesis 18, we get a glimpse into Sarah's soul and a little of what God wants us to emulate. Sarah was way old and so was Abraham. God had not delivered on His promise of a son and their biological time hadn't just passed, it had packed up and moved out. Yet, God visited Abraham and Sarah and promised a son in a year's time. What went on in the depths of Sarah's soul at that time that made her beautiful? The narrative might go something like this, "I'm old and haven't made love to my husband in a long time. Am I still beautiful? Do I even arouse Abraham any more or does he just see a shriveled up old woman?" In the midst of her questioning, she didn't protect herself, she opened herself up to God in her fear and to Abraham with her body and she became pregnant (Gen. 21:1-8).  [Narrative borrowed from Larry Crabb.]

With this new framework of beauty, I sense the Spirit asking me if I am living with walls down, with strategies put away, and with life open to reveal the image of God inside me. Am I willing to take the risk to live "unanxious and unintimidated," fully resting in the Beautiful One who dwells in me and will not let me be destroyed?