The Beauty I Teach

 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.' I have heard that phrase all my life. There are many times I have quoted it to another. I do believe it somewhere in my heart of hearts. But everyday I see what I am told beauty should be and I sub-consciously accept it.
  Last week, at Family Camp, I took my two-year-old sister for a walk. Since there were pinecones all over the ground. I told her we should pick some up to take to Mom. It is fall and so we have pinecones instead of flowers. I tried to find the most symmetrical pinecones that had touched the ground. My sister picked up cones that were crushed on one side: they were not so spiny. As I gathered my pinecones, I would hold them out for her to look at and would tell her, "See, pretty." Then she would hold up her crushed pinecones for me to see and say,
  "Pretty." I then found myself saying,
  "No, look at this one," as I held up a mostly symmetrical pinecone. "This one is pretty." Then she, in her two-year-old way, insisted that she wanted her pinecone, that it was pretty.
  I stopped for a moment and had to ask myself: Why was I telling my sister it was the symmetrical pinecones that were the pretty ones? She liked the crushed ones, and that was her opinion. There are definitely times when I will have to tell my sister there are absolutes that will override her opinions. But when it comes to pinecones, I am not really an authority on which are pretty and which are not. Perfection, as I think it should be, is not always beautiful. After all, I am human. My ideas of goodness and beauty will always be flawed. God made some things symmetrical and He made some things asymmetrical. And everything He made is good and beautiful whether or not I think so.