Dark, but lovely

I saw this woman at the 7-11. Long beautiful blonde hair, slender build, nice figure, smartly dressed in a cute skirt and strappy mules, French manicure on her fingers and toes. Observing her while I filled my gas tank, her hair shielded her face, but I thought, "She must be really pretty."

Then, she turned around. Her face was plain and her features uneven. I had to fight staring because the face did not fit the form. She reminded me of the type of people I'd seen on Extreme Makeover.

It's so odd how we define beauty. I expected a Christie Brinkley face to go with the Jennifer Aniston body (sans the fake boobs.) How often to do judge by outward appearances? How often do we see in part? The Bible says man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

Don't you wish we could really see hearts, I mean clearly see?

We love the beautiful people, yet how many of them have fake, puffed up hearts? And how many of the not-so-beautiful-people have simple, pure hearts?

Every whip lash, every fist to the face, every thorn pushed into His crown, every hair of his beard plucked out, every nail, the weight of anguish was endured for love! For the sake of real beauty. He did it for the unlovely inside, for the unlovely outside. Don't we all find ourselves in an unlovely place some time in our life?

Yet, Jesus said, "You are worthy." And He proved it. But we can't have worthiness or beauty or freedom outside of Him. It's impossible. He's the only one EVER who died for sins, who died for love.

"I am dark, but lovely." Song of Solomon 1:5