For the fear of embarrassing this person, I want to tell a little story of a woman named "Debbie." Debbie is a woman who has had about every sort of issue growing up that could possibly arise. Through the course of her life, she has been the victim of emotional abuse, physical abuse and verbal abuse. But to contrast this, Debbie is one of the most beautiful women, both inside and out that I have ever met. However, as a result of her past, instead of seeing herself as a woman who has overcome these obstacles and is truly someone deserving of being considered "beautiful," she struggles to grasp the fact that she has such a tremendous value of self-worth. Unfortunately, Debbie's story is not unlike the stories of hundreds of thousands of women and men worldwide. I myself, given my football background continue to struggle with the very same battle of attempting to determine my own self-worth within a world that in many ways is a very condemning and belittling society where our weaknesses and shortcoming can potentially be exposed, either directly through a comment or indirectly through visual displays. As a result, our own perceptions of true beauty in my opinion are severely skewed, as beauty is now determined by the size of one's waist line, the value of a pair of jeans, or the new 'bob' hair style. Through these misconceptions of our body image, we effectively lose ourselves to the standards that the world places upon us, instead of measuring ourselves based upon the yardstick of the one who made us. This sentiment is outlined in the very first chapter of the Bible in Genesis 1:27 which reads;
"God created man in his own image,in the image of God he created him,male and female he created them." -Genesis 1:27
This verse clearly states that male and female were both equally created in God's own image, and seeing God through the beauty of his creation, He did not create us to be ugly depictions of Himself. Even more important of a question that we ask ourselves, is why are we so concerned with our outward appearances in the first place? Do we really think that God cares about our outward appearances? For example, throughout history there have been examples that show that the concept of beauty is a diverse and ever varying concept that will be changing as long as the sun is in the sky. In ancient China, the "lotus foot" was the fad of the times, as women were often forced to break and eventually bind their feet into little 4-inch appendages all for the sake of beauty. During the Elizabethan era, women with a high forehead were deemed attractive, as women would shave and continously pluck their frontal hairs to achieve the image. Robin Henig in her book, The Price of Perfection assesses how these women also applied a very dangerous lead based make up that "caused peripheral neuropathy, gout, anemia, chronic renal failure, and disfiguring scarring," which would eventually require the users to apply even more makeup. The situation was so severe, that Queen Elizabeth I, acquired such a misshapen appearance that she banished all mirrors from her castle because she had acquired an almost "clown-like" appearance. The common moniker of "pain is beauty" is clearly seen here, and also through the millions of men and women who struggle with eating disorders around the world to maintain the figures of the models that are captured in nearly every form of advertisement and entertainment.
While I wish that I were different in my own heart, there are many times that I myself find myself continuing to label my own self-worth based upon the scale that the world judges me on instead of the opinion of God. I find myself asking first, what exactly is beauty? Is beauty more or less qualities that give pleasure for our various senses? Or is it as the book Captivating so eloquently describes as;
"Beauty is transcendent- it is our most immediate experience of the eternal. Sometimes the beauty is so deep it pierces us with longing for life as it was meant to be. Beauty reminds us of an Eden we have never known, but somehow know our hearts were created for. Beauty speaks of heaven to come, when all shall be beautiful. It haunts us with eternity. Beauty says: there is a glory calling to you. And if there is a glory, there is a source of glory. What great goodness could have possibly created this? What generosity gave us this to behold? Beauty draws us to God." - Captivating, John and Staci Eldridge
Biblically there are also stories that give real life example of God's idea of true beauty. For example, there is a story in 1 Samuel of how the Lord rejects Saul after he breaks his covenant with the Lord over his ruling of Israel. As a result, Samuel is then sent to anoint a new king of Israel. Samuel understood that the Lord would annoint one of the sons of a man named Jesse to serve under this new position, however, he just did not know which one. As Samuel first met Eliab, one of Jesse's sons, he was sure that this was the man that the Lord had intended to anoint as king. However, the Lord says to Samuel,
"Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man loks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7
This is a prime example of an occasion in which the Lord could've chosen a man who was an identical representation of what we would expect from a Calvin Kline model, but the Lord explicitly says that these attributes to him are futile. Instead, the Lord chooses another son of Jesse, a sheep herder that is described as his youngest and "ruddy." To further this point one step further, when God chose to send his son to save us, think of the modest, feeble depictions of the life of Christ. Christ was not born within the glories of a grand festival, but in a manger surrounded by animals and without their a doubt their almost pungent scents. Even through out his life, Jesus was not known as a man to be physically beautiful. In fact, there are no instances in the bible in which the physical appearance of Jesus was even mentioned! The only slightly ambiguous depiction of Jesus can be found in Isaiah 53:2, which says that;
He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him." -Isaiah 53:2
However, the beauty of Christ was not seen through his looks, but through his heart which translated to his actions. This verse, as well as the verses that follow this one make it clear that Jesus was not a man that was attractive and handsome. In fact, it can be seen that God did not want His son to found the Kingdom of God through the shallowness of physical appearances. Instead, it is clear that God wanted people to be attracted to Him through his actions and his message of salvation. If God chose to send his only son in the form of an ordinary man, what does this say about the importance of our own outward appearance? God does not spend effort focusing on such pointless physical attributes, so why should we?
To all of us who struggle with our physical appearance in a world that values it so greatly, I have a few words of wisdom that I hope that I can even take! It is said in 1 John that God is love, and as far as I'm concerned, there is nothing in this world that is more beautiful than love. Following this, I previously mentioned that if we are made in the image of God, we are made with that same sentiment of love that God wishes us to set forth. Through being made in the image of God, He sees each and every one of us to be beautiful; flaws and all. God intended for all of us to be a direct reflection of a facet that encompasses the very character of God. It is without a doubt, that beauty is the most essential, yet misunderstood of all of God's qualities. This has caused untold amounts of hardship, pain and hurt as millions of us struggle to find our place within our image-first society. Women for example aren't celebrated as much for being fabulous athletes as they are for being absolutely gorgeous and appealing people. Unfortunately, as a result we are continually distressed over this issue of beauty; We long in our souls to be beautiful, to believe that others find us beautiful, and our thirst will not be satisfied until we find it. Well, we are already made into the most beautiful image imaginable. We are accepted, loved, appreciated and cherished by One who will never fail us nor deceive us. Harder said than done obviously, but we must shed off the shackles of such a conforming society and live free in the solace that we are always beautiful to our Creator, the One we hope to share eternity with. In Romans 12:2 this emotion is echoed as we are called to;
"not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." -Romans 12:2
To Debbie, and to all of the other people out there like myself who struggle with our self-perceptions, I have good news, there is a light at the end of this tunnel. Debbie, you are beautiful beyond words, and so are each and every one of God's children. All it takes is one of the simplest, yet difficult of steps; belief.
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