They’re calling it beautiful…

They’re calling it beautiful.

Big. Bold. Beautiful.

But beauty isn’t in the branding.

No matter what it’s called,

beauty isn’t to be found in a bill.

Nor in a polished press release.

Beauty is not found

in slogans wrapped in flags

or speeches thick with applause.

Beauty is found

in the way the hungry are fed,

the way neighbors care for each other.

Beauty is found

in clean water, safe homes, meaningful work,

and truth-telling.

Beauty shows up in the margins:

in how the most vulnerable are treated,

in the refusal to abandon the sick,

in tending the humanity of those behind bars or fences.

Beauty is made known in brave commitments:

in whether justice is done when no one is watching,

in the consideration of those with no lobbyist,

and in the courage to add another place at the table.

We don’t need more beautiful branding.

We need beautiful outcomes:

the kind that show compassion,

that sound like dignity,

and that feel like hope

for those who’ve waited too long for all of it.

Call it what you will.

But beauty lives in love enacted.

Beauty unfolds in quiet acts of justice.

And beauty grows wherever we dare to choose each other.

On earth as it is in heaven….