True Beauty

Growing up I never thought I was beautiful.  I always compared myself with the prettiest girl in school or with the actress on TV or the model in magazines. I would always say, "If only I had her eyes! Her hair! Her skin color!" All I knew was that for some unfair reason, I was given skeleton-like fingers, crazy hair, and that I was late in the distribution of perfect features!  It was an even greater torture when I found myself in the U.S; in a school where I was the minority and the definition of beauty did not include me.  Oh how I tortured myself! I would go home and cry because I couldn't be that "beautiful" person I wanted to be. But I was wrong. Oh So Wrong! I learned that God created me unique and perfect in his eyes. And that true beauty is the result of what is inside of our hearts.

True beauty has nothing to do with a person's appearance. True beauty has to do with the quality of who we are inside. We all know that Jesus was BEAUTIFUL, the most BEAUTIFUL person on earth! But the Bible describes Him in Isaiah 53:2 as one who "had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."  The message version says, "There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over."  According to this world's definition of "beauty" Jesus was "looked down on and passed over", yet we all know that there is no more beautiful person in this world than our beloved Jesus! Our Savior! Who gave it all for us! Oh how beautiful our Lord is!

So what is true beauty? It is the quality of our hearts, our intentions, our feelings, our thoughts toward ourselves and others.   Do you want to be more beautiful? Then you must turn to the Maker of all things beautiful.  Our beautiful Jesus! Only he can beautify our hearts and our lives in general! He took this empty, shattered and tasteless heart of mine and has and continues to miraculously turn it into His perfect masterpiece. He can do the same with you. Only then will you be truly beautiful.  He will make of your heart His home. He will turn your thoughts into a place of faith and love.  He will destroy all the ugliness of your past mistakes, sins, and shameful ways. And He will make you beautiful.  Yes, beautiful! Truly beautiful!