Once Upon A Time . . .

. . . in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining castle.

Although he had everything his heart desired, the prince was

spoiled, selfish, and unkind. But then, one winter's night, an old

beggar woman came to the castle and offered him a single rose

in return for shelter from the bitter cold.

Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the prince sneered at the

gift and turned the old woman away, but she warned him not to

be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found within. And when

he dismissed her again, the old woman's ugliness melted away to

reveal a beautiful enchantress.

The prince tried to apologize, but it was too late, for she had seen

that there was no love in his heart, and as punishment, she transformed

him into a hideous beast, and placed a powerful spell on the castle,

and all who lived there.

Ashamed of his monstrous form, the beast concealed himself inside

his castle, with a magic mirror as his only window to the outside world.

The rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose, which would

bloom until his twenty-first year.

If he could learn to love another, and earn her love in return by

the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken. If not,

he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time. As the years

passed, he fell into despair, and lost all hope, for who could ever

learn to love a beast?

We love Him, BECAUSE He FIRST loved us.
-I John 4:19-

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
and as a root out of a dry ground:
He hath NO form nor comeliness;
and when we shall see Him,
there is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected of men;
a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
and we hid as it were our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
-Isaiah 53:1-3-

And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us:
and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us;
yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it.
-Psalm 90:17-

So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty:
for He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him.
-Psalm 45:11-

Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty:
they shall behold the land that is very far off.
-Isaiah 33:17-

Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain:
but a woman that feareth the LORD,
she shall be praised.
-Proverbs 31:30-

Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair,
and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel;
but let it be the hidden man of the heart,
in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit,
which is in the sight of God of great price.
-1 Peter 3:3-4-