pəlkrəˈt(y)o͞od(ə)nəs/: beautiful

"How can such an ugly-sounding word mean beautiful?” PMd my friend.

As I had never encountered the word, I had to look it up expecting it to be used in reference to a scenery or an inanimate object but was surprised to see it used to describe physical beauty. It made me wonder what other words are horrible to the ears and difficult to the tongue but satisfies the heart and its longings?

Cafune - to tenderly run your fingers through your lover's hair

Hiraeth - homesickness to a home you can never return to

Limerence - The feelings and emotions (excitement, nervousness, etc.) you experience when you have a crush on somebody, combined with an overwhelming, obsessive need to have your feelings reciprocated

Noheroes - sad inside

Onism - the awareness of how little of the world you’ll experience

Saudade- The feeling of longing for something or someone who you love and which is lost

Sonder - the realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as yours

Zenosyne - The sense that time keeps going faster

Who comes up with these words?

As I went through the list, it made me reflect on life and the ugliness that it may bring but in actuality is beautiful.

The foremost example would be the word “death.” Could there be an uglier word? Yet it was through it that God’s demand for justice was met.

Although it’s a phrase, another would be the “shedding of the blood.” Some of us faint at the sight of a drop of blood and yet it gave us access to the throne of grace.

And then there’s “pain” which is as ugly as it sounds but it can also bring resplendence when we view it through our Father’s eyes and understand that no child of God goes through it with neither rhyme nor reason. There is always a purpose that will bring glory to His Name. We only need to be quiet amidst the tears that roll. Think Abraham introducing himself as the “father of multitudes” with a barren and aging wife. Think Joseph. Surely I don’t need to tell you why he’s an example. Think Job. Another self-explanatory example. As a result, millions of people down centuries have been blessed and glorified God. From something ugly came forth beauty.

A friend of mine who is as pulchritudinous as they come woke up one morning with an ankle that has weakened seemingly overnight that it could not hold up her weight. Four years later, her condition has worsened in spite of multiple surgeries and physical treatments and yet she praises God for the beauty that the pain has brought.

When life was good, she strayed but when it became ugly, the most beautiful thing happened---she embraced the humility of the prodigal son. Her husband who never was interested “in these things” followed suit. Where once she shut herself from society because of the pain, she is now seeking an audience to testify of the beauty of our Lord. Truly, nothing is ugly in the hands of God.

“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” Psalm 27:4 KJV