And let not your adornment be merely external—braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart with imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God.
1 Peter 3:3-4
Some years ago a song was released with the lyrics “beauty’s only skin deep, yeah, yeah, yeah.” So many people think that if you get a beautiful woman or a handsome man that you have landed the prize. A few years ago I took the bus to Chicago to visit my family during a peak holiday season so there was a massive number of people traveling. The line of people standing to go to Chicago was so large that we were put on three buses. Of course they would not tell the crowd about their decision to bring in two more buses which was causing us to run late. Needless to say, everyone was getting a little upset wondering why were we experiencing such a long delay in departing. A beautiful woman got into line with her friend and everyone took quick glances at her. She was drop dead beautiful and had a gorgeous head of hair (whether natural or purchased, God knows) and she was dressed to the nines. The men were salivating over this woman; I would have hated to be her plain Jane friend. But anyway, back to the story, we began to hear a horrible voice filled with curse words I hadn't heard in many years. We were all somewhat taken back because we just knew that this horrible voice filled with vile words could not be coming from this beautiful woman. But it was! She was cursing like a junkyard dog and her beauty began to fade. She became an offense to everyone in line. Some young guy said, “man, she don’t even look fine no more.” Sorry, beauty is more than skin deep.
Beauty is inward but expresses itself on the outside. It is not worn on the outside of the body but is expressed from the depths of the person’s heart. We have all met men or women who were not very attractive on the outside but absolutely beautiful on the inside. They were gentle and humble in spirit and once you knew them their looks did not matter to you. We can see this inward beauty expressed on the outside of a person in how the person carries themselves or what they say to others. A beautiful person encourages others and find ways to be a blessing to those in need. A truly beautiful person is filled with kindness and goodness and brings life to others in their expression of love through acts of kindness or words of exhortation. Beauty is more than skin deep; it is from the depths of the soul. Jesus was a “beautiful person” but not visually for the scriptures called him “comely” or “plain”. But He was one of the most beautiful people to have ever lived for love oozed from His very being. That’s what I’m talking about; let love flow or ooze from us to others. Let the beautiful people take their stand and bring life to a dying and cold world!
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