Greetings MOL Family!
The written Word and nature each shed light on the other. Every book of the Bible has something about God’s beautiful way, and it abounds in figures of speech borrowed from nature…
God’s Beautiful Plan
And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. – Daniel 12:3
This world has its stars – men and women that are outstanding. That expression has been popularized by Hollywood. But oh, how brief is their shining, those stars out there. They are like these meteors that flash across the sky and then go out in eternal night.
But God’s stars shine how? For ever and ever. God wants you to be one of His stars. For that you were born – that’s your destiny; you can be a star and shine for ever and ever. It is all right, dear ones, to want to be beautiful. We have read that. That is what the spirit of God tells us. Oh, that we might know what true beauty is and lasting beauty, and shine among the stars of God forever and ever.
Now let us see how the stars shine, 1 Corinthians 15:41. If you are going to be one of God’s stars, you need to know how the stars shine. Here it is, just as clear as can be. I want you to memorize this text, for it is so important in our study of beauty. Remember, we are taking our lesson today from the stars.
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. – 1 Corinthians 15:41
How do the stars shine? What does one star do? It differs from what? Another star. In what? In glory. It differs. Are you willing to be different? Many people would rather be dead than be different. That is why they are dead. But God’s stars, each one is different, different from what? From all other stars. There are no two stars alike. If you are going to be one of God’s stars, there is a special plan and pattern for you like no other in the earth, like no other in the universe. Oh, what a destiny, my friends. It is that which makes you valuable.
The thing that makes value, in many cases, is rareness. Is that right? Yes. Are you rare – a rare bird? Yes. There is nobody quite like you… There is only one [you] in all the universe, and the Lord just loves [you] because He can’t get another one like [you]. Wouldn’t it be nice if you knew that God loved you that much, and planned for you that carefully? Well, it is true.
If you were the devil, what would you do about it? If you knew that God thought so much of you, individually, or this person individually, if you were in the devil’s place, wouldn’t you attack that thing and try to destroy the very thing that makes you of such value? That’s what the devil is doing.
In the book Evangelism, we have Heaven’s evaluation of the importance of this ingredient in beauty:
In all the Lord’s arrangements, there is nothing more beautiful than His plan of giving to men and women a diversity of gifts. – Evangelism, pg. 98
Oh, then we are dealing with a very important ingredient in beauty. Think of it for a moment. Take the most beautiful song you’ve ever heard, and listen to it morning, noon, and night, 365 days straight. Tell me, how many of you would choose to do that?
Take the most beautiful color, the one that you like the most. Now take that color and paint the sky with it. Spray all the trees. Paint all the houses that color. Make all your clothes that color. Have all your friends dress in that color. Well, already you are getting nauseated, aren’t you? Yes.
God has made us like Himself to like variety, to like diversity. Now then, if we want to be beautiful, if we want to make God happy who made us, if we want to shine as His stars for ever and ever, let’s go along with His plan.
God’s Garden of Variety
I want to establish, with reference after reference, the importance of this ingredient of individuality, and how it is to be applied in the various phases of life. Let us read on:
The church is His garden, adorned with a variety of trees, plants, and flowers. – Ibid
What is the church? His garden. And it is adorned with all roses, isn’t it? Oh, no. All sweet peas? No, there are the tall hollyhocks and the little violets. There are the sweet-scented carnations and other flowers that don’t have any fragrance at all.
Oh, but if I were one of those flowers that doesn’t have fragrance, and I should happen to be near a carnation and hear the people express their appreciation of how nice that carnation smells, then how would I feel? “Oh, I wonder why I can’t have perfume like that. Well, I know what to do. I will run to town and get something?”
The next page:
From the endless variety of plants and flowers, we may learn an important lesson. All blossoms are not the same in form or color. Some possess healing virtues. Some are always fragrant. There are professing Christians who think it their duty to make every Christian like themselves. – Evangelism, pg. 99
Did you ever run into one? Church tinkers, Sister White calls them in another place, always going around tinkering with somebody. “I think your dress ought to be different. I think your hair ought to be different. I think this ought to be different. I think you ought to eat differently.” Well, you say, “Shouldn’t we try to help people?” Yes. But dear friends, listen, let’s get out of our heads the idea that we are to make everybody like us. In fact, let’s get out of our heads any thought that we are to make anybody like us.
What a job a gardener would have if he tried to keep the hollyhocks down with the petunias or the sweet peas with the violets. He would really have a hard job wouldn’t he? Whichever way he worked on it, if he tried to pull the hollyhocks down or hold them down or if he tried to pull the violets up?
[God] does not expect the hyssop to assume the proportions of the cedar, nor the olive to reach the height of the stately palm. – Evangelism, pgs. 98-99
It is interesting to listen to children, they want to be as tall as this person, or some of them don’t want to be as tall as somebody else. Jesus said:
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? – Matthew 6:27
We can’t handle some of those things. But believe me, how we work at everything we can handle or think we can handle. And the devil is busy trying to get people to copy, imitate others.
Did you ever hear somebody say? “Oh, I wish I could sing like so and so.” You will never be able to sing them, but you can sing like Mary or John or Harry or Alice – or whatever your name is. And that will please God a thousand times better than your singing like somebody else. Isn’t that a relief, dear friends? A blessed relief. Look here in Volume 7:
But let none mourn that they cannot glorify God in the use of talents that He has not entrusted to their keeping. – Testimonies for the Church, Volume 7, pg. 237
Don’t mourn because you don’t have the talents somebody else has. If you do, you will overlook some talents God has given you. And it is the ones He has given you that He wants you to use…
What a load of care and a burden of worry that will lift from a million shoulders, if we can just get this message through to people: You don’t have to be like somebody else!
As we go farther into this wonderful subject of beauty, we are going to study how we can cooperate with God in discovering and carrying out His individual plan for each one of us. Invite a friend, and we’ll see you then!
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* This study has been adapted from classes taken by Elder W.D. Frazee.