Real beauty

I had just gone for my early morning walk and was puttering around outside, watering the plants and the "Sanford and Sons", as my daughter fondly calls it, container vegetable garden. There were some very wilted flowers that we had been remiss in planting, so I decided to mix some dirt with my sweat and put them in a pot. My granddaughter came outside with wet hair and her pj's on and asked if she could help. Of course, loving any help I can get, and especially from a grandkid, I said, "Sure," and we began to put dried up little flowers in the pot.

My handsome, clean, neat, well-dressed businessman of a husband came out carrying what else but the camera and snapped a picture of the two hard-working women with sweat and dirt and wet hair and a not-so-clean, neat, or well-dressed appearance. My vain self tells me not to put this picture on my post, but my there is surely a great analogy to be made self tells me, "Oh, go ahead. Most of these people don't know you anyway." So here it is:


The analogy: Beauty is much more than just skin deep. If not, I'm in trouble! But I do believe there is a beauty that far outshines that which is on the outside. I don't think it is often the first thing that one observes, and many fail to look beyond what hits them in the face. That's unfortunate, because many who have the scars of life are adorned with the greatest beauty.
1 Pet 3:4 says, "But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."

Take my friend Hannah, for instance. She is one of the most beautiful people that I know. She shines like a light among young women. When she was 17 she was in a serious car accident that caused her to be hospitalized for 6 months with 3rd degree burns over much of her body. Yet somehow the scars and the stares and the questions have only made her beauty more intense. She in no way allows herself to be affected by a few scars. She is my precious role model. And yes, she is beautiful--very, very beautiful.

I'm hoping that my little dry, wilted flowers that I planted will metamorphose into beautiful plants, but if not, perhaps they can just be reminders to me that true beauty takes much time to obtain, and if one is not watered with the Water of Life and does not root herself in the soil of God's Word, then whatever outer beauty that she has will dry up and fade away, just as those plants that I neglected so badly.

Have a blessed day full of the inner beauty that only the Lord can give.
And by the way, I do clean up a little bit!