BEAUTY TIPS WRAP UP

Did you know that babies as young as eight months will stare at an attractive female face, of any race and culture, longer than an average or less attractive face. This early recognition of beauty may be one indication of what it means to be created in the image of God. God loves beauty. He creates it. He lives in it, "...strength and beauty are in His sanctuary" (Psalms 96:6b). "He has made everything beautiful in its time. . ."(Ecclesiates 3:11). I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but I do know that the word which is translated "beautiful" in this verse is the same one used to describe the countinance of David in I Sam. 16:12. It is only God who can take what is ugly and turn it into something beautiful!

The best makeup is a makeover for the soul, "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, and the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit" (I Peter 3:3-4). It is not that good hair styles, jewelry and clothes are wrong. They can enhance your physical appearance. However if one depends on those things for beauty, it is wasted money! I have seen plenty of people who had all these things that literally looked miserable. Joyless lives were written into their faces.

Of Jesus it was prophesied that, "...he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him" (Isa. 53:2b). I doubt that Jesus was a handsome person. I see him as being Lincolnesque. Lincoln, the second great emancipator, was ridiculed because of his looks, but was made handsome by what he did. I have never thought of him as being anything other than handsome. So I think it was with Jesus. He was probably not a physically handsome individual, but was made beautiful by what he accomplished for you and me. So it can be with you. Great people wind up being gorgeous, but gorgeous people seldom wind up being great!

Grace&Peace;
Tom