made lovely

“… for the church has no beauty but what the Bridegroom gives her; He does not find, but makes her, lovely.” — c.s. lewis

“Now Chauntecleer the Ready did a most unready thing: He sat down and stared.

“Perhaps if he had seen her while she walked among a flock of Hens, clucking and pouting, this might not have happened to him. But he saw her in her weakness. He saw her lying open, where anyone in the world could have come by and hurt her. He saw her loose, sleeping, and without protection whatsoever. He saw her truthful, when she was not pretending to be anything else than a purely white Hen with fire at her throat. He saw her when she didn’t see him back. He saw her lovely.”

— The Book of the Dun Cow, Walter Wangerin Jr.

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person — though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die — but God shows His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” — romans 5:7-8