Beauty

What is beauty to a boy?

As a boy growing up, the idea of beauty evolves so rapidly.

As a toddler, anything that can be put in your mouth is beautiful.

As you begin to walk, a ball becomes the epitome of beauty.

As you get older, you appreciate the beauty of the world around you: mountains, snow, that very climbable tree.

You start to appreciate animals for their beauty: your dog’s soft fur, the majestic power of horses, the effortless flight of birds.

And inevitably, as you get older (the timing is different for every one of us), one day a girl catches your eye. It’s a new feeling of appreciation. Have girls always been this…pretty? I actually remember that particular moment in third grade. I still remember her name. I still remember thinking for the first time: this is beauty.

And you continue to grow.

Now you’re in fifth grade, you might get your first crush. And it’s all giddy excitement.

Sixth grade, it’s still fun and interesting—this beauty that girls hold. You’re fascinated by it. For some of us, it becomes all we can think about.

Now you enter high school. And many start to broaden their thinking. You still appreciate the beauty you did as a kid—in that delicious snow cone, the sound of a basketball bouncing, the unique beauty of a fish dangling on a line, the forests, the sky…

But all of these things pale when compared to the beauty of the female sex. And you start to believe that they are a species of their own. You long to understand them.

The world has long tried to shape, mold, and distort your view of what true beauty is. As you go through high school and grow, girls become a central theme.

And then one day, in high school or after (again, the timing is different for everyone), you see someone — and you realize there is more. Not only is this person beautiful—you can see that immediately—but there’s more. You notice grace, you see confidence (or lack thereof- both are beautiful). You notice demeanor, kindness, a way of speaking. A way of being.

This is someone you want to be around.

And if you’re lucky, that person wants to be around you too. And now this person is light, air, and sustenance. Being around them energizes you. You realize: this is beauty.

And then you get married.

You notice there are blemishes. They do things that annoy you. They have habits you don’t understand. Somehow, your mind doesn’t reject them. Because, like the distant and jagged edges of a mountain, you know the imperfection of this person adds to their character and to their beauty.

One day, it all changes again.

She starts to grow around her belly. Everything the world has tried to convince you isn’t attractive starts to happen. You realize you never knew what beauty was. She literally glows.

She grows, and she glows.

And then your world is flipped upside down. Because you see a miracle happen before your eyes. The beauty! After that moment, you can never look at this being you’ve started a life with the same. You will never go back. You realize you have been in the presence of a Goddess—not in the cliché way we use that word nowadays, but an actual being sent with miraculous powers from a place above.

The life she bore and created grows. And you look at this little life, and you look at the woman who brought it to you, and you try to wrap your mind around this beauty.

The craziest part is, from this moment on, the woman—your wife—often feels her least “attractive.”

And you look at her, and you realize there has never been anything more majestic, more miraculous, more beautiful than this person.

This once girlfriend. This once fiancée. This wife. This mother. This person.

She thinks the miracle she has borne has subtracted from her beauty, because the world often tells her it has. That she has lost her once great power.

This couldn’t be farther from the truth. You want to know the truth?

This person is the most beautiful thing to ever exist.

This person is beauty.