"I am so beautiful, sometimes people weep when they see me..."

I have this friend who thinks she is beautiful.
And the thing is, she is. She's gorgeous.
But, she says it out loud. She acknowledges her shiny hair, how well she fits into her new jeans, how her body is amazing.

At first I thought, "Who is this SNOB?"
But, I came to realize that the reason her comments sounded grating is that I had never heard a woman talk that way about her own body.

We are so accustomed to verbally abusing our bodies that any type of comfort in our own radiance is perceived as conceit.

What would happen if we started looking at our own forms the same way God perceived them?

Psalm 139:13 states:
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb...
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body. "

God as Creator. God as Artist.
If He took all of that time to create me and piece me together - how wonderful my body must be in His eyes! How deliberate His choices!

I wonder if God aches when we mess with His handiwork? When we speak words against His creation?

Margaret Cho once said "I am so beautiful, sometimes people weep when they see me. And it has nothing to do with what I look like really, it is just that I gave myself the power to say that I am beautiful. And if I could do that, maybe there is hope for them too."

My prayer for myself and other women is a gentleness and sense of awe about our bodies. May we begin to have an appreciation of our own internal and external power. May we understand that loving who we are is an incredibly subversive act.