Beautiful

I had a friend in grade school who no one liked and I didn’t understand why. She was kind, funny, intelligent, generous, sweet, talented (read: she wrote a song at 8 years old!), and a really great friend. She was one of my favorite people. Sure, she stuttered and she got teased for it. And as if that wasn’t enough to lower the estimation she had of herself, she got teased for her looks as well. As I grew older, I figured out that those kids only saw how she was on the outside and wrote her off because she was not “pretty” like they were. Even my other friends have written her off.

It’s sad that as early as 5 years old, we learn to favor those who look “nice”. Is it because we grew up playing with Barbie and Ken dolls? I think that because of our fallen nature we are predisposed to initially judge people based on their superficial attributes. And it’s only when we get to really know them that we find out how right or how wrong we were to begin with. The problem is, we seldom get past what we see with our eyes. Sometimes, we don’t even bother to connect or get to know people who, in our estimation, are not worth our time because of how they look on the outside: too tall, too skinny, eyes are too big, etc. And the opposite could be true as well. We wouldn’t talk to a gorgeous guy because they’re “too pretty” for us. How many meaningful friendships have we missed out on because of this?

I am not going to pretend that I have not been guilty of judging based on first impressions. I, too, was once an immature person who had some growing up to do (still do) like everyone else. But ever since I moved to New York and met people from different cultures who have different standards of beauty and worked with children with special needs with varying types of physical and intellectual disability, I have learned that everyone is beautiful. You just have to know how to look. And I’m not even referring to inner beauty. I have learned to look into a person’s eyes and see how they sparkle when they talk about something that interests them, how they smile when they see something that makes them happy, how their lips move, or how their eyebrows dance.

Things (or people) are beautiful not because they’re perfect; they’re beautiful because you see them as such.

Beautiful and Wonderful

I read about Gideon today in the book of Judges and I see so much of myself in him. Gideon is not a strong man. He said so himself. He’s the least among his brothers and he belongs to the weakest tribe in Israel. But God chose him to deliver his people from the Midianites who have oppressed them.

God chooses the foolish things, the weak, the insignificant. So that when victory is won, no one can boast but only God will be glorified. So if you’re battling against insecurity today, remember that regardless of how you assess yourself, God sees value in you. Gideon thought poorly of himself but God thought otherwise.

How many times have we allowed people to make us look down on ourselves? Too skinny. Too fat. Too clumsy. Too stupid. We take the opinion of others as gospel truth, especially when 2 or more confirm it. And so much so when we agree. Before we knew it, we start comparing ourselves with others and how we can never seem to measure up.

Let us look to the cross. Everything that matters is reflected right there. If God didn’t think us too ugly to die for, what gives us (or other people) the right to contradict Him. Beautifully and wonderfully made, that’s what we are. Let’s start with that truth.