Psalm 139:14 – I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
We’re all guilty of it, myself included. Every woman I’ve ever known sees her outer “flaws” as a glaring reminder of everything she might not be. Somewhere in the process of growing up, we as women, have learned that we are not enough. So, we endeavor to change our hair, put on more make-up, and loathe the extra pounds in places we don’t want. We somehow hope that we can look like another woman who has also been made-up, touched up, and photoshopped for a picture in front of a camera.
This is not just a phenomenon of our culture. Each culture has its own ideas of beauty that are forced upon its young girls and women. One example occurs in the country of Burma (Myanmar). Rings are placed around the necks of women which over time force down the bones of the shoulders making the neck appear longer. In affluent countries, if breasts are not large enough or hips are too big, surgery is a common option.
In the brokenness of our world, women have far too often fallen prey to the enemy’s lie that the way in which God made us is not enough. Yet, Truth tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Interestingly, in His wisdom, when Jesus came, He chose not to focus on the outer appearance, but to focus instead on the inner beauty that He has wonderfully created.
With the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, something miraculous happened. For His incarnate birth, Jesus chose to humbly surrender His majesty and be born to a young servant girl. The Bible makes no mention of her outer beauty. Rather we find that Mary is highly favored because of her humility (Luke 1:26, 48). She was a young woman of depth, who treasured, silently pondered, and walked in obedience to the One whose image she bore.
In His life, Jesus made no mention of the outer beauty of women around Him. The woman who washed His feet with her tears and dried them with her hair must have looked quite the mess. Yet, she didn’t care. She only knew that she loved this man who had saved her. Jesus honored and protected her amidst ridicule because He knew who she was, a beautifully and wonderfully made woman of faith.
In His death, all but one of his male disciples ran and hid. It was women in their inner beauty who endured the horrific scene of their Savior on the Cross. And at the resurrection, it was a woman that Jesus first appeared to, crying in anguish over the loss of the of the Creator of her soul.
In God’s sight, a woman of beauty is a woman of faith who has surrendered her entire life to Jesus. What if we, as Christian women, dared to praise Him because all of our being has been beautifully and wonderfully made?
By Lynn Meadows
Thank you Lynn for your blog! As I get older it’s a real struggle with outer beauty and I am so encouraged today by the truths you are sharing! God Bless!
May God give us all grace to focus on what is truly important!
Thank you for this reminder message. After all Jesus looks at the inside of our hearts, not the outside. The inside is where we need to have beauty. So hard to stay focused on this important fact with all of the pressures of our society.