If you have ever heard the story of Beauty and the Beast, one of the lessons you learn is that love creates beauty. When everyone else sees only a beast, love looks closer and sees beauty. When everyone else sees a speck of ugliness and magnifies it, love finds the good and calls it out. Michelangelo, the famous Italian sculptor, painter, and poet, once stood before a great block of marble that had been rejected by builders and cast aside for its faults. As he examined the marble, a friend asked what he was looking at. Michelangelo responded, “An angel.” He was able to see the potential in that stone that everyone else missed. He saw the hidden beauty and bought it forth.

And that is exactly what God does with us. When He sees us, He doesn’t focus on our ugliness and sin, His eyes see the glory He is working in our lives! Paul wrote, “When Christ, who is your life appears, you also will appear with Him, glorious.” It isn’t a fairy tale, it’s real.