This was adapted from a longer version of the post which can be found here.
God is King–but he is also Master Artist, and He makes no mistakes. We’ve forgotten how to see that in relation to our own lives and appearance.
It’s difficult to treat ourselves ourselves with the dignity that Christ saw when He died for us. We constantly criticize ourselves for the details we call imperfection, things He gave us intentionally. They make us who we are, and it breaks His Heart when we look in the mirror and see anything less than beauty.
Our world calls for us to forget that we are works of art.
It would be an hypocrisy if I told you I love everything about myself. I fall into this trap too–constantly. In today’s world, not only is God unimportant, but we are told that we aren’t good enough. Both men and women are put into a mold that’s constantly shifting. We’re told to be skinny, tanned, have plastic surgery, follow the latest hair style trend, etc.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to look your best. The problem is when it’s not because the change makes us happy: No, we are told to follow the latest trends because we’re scared to stand out. We’re told to be like everyone else, but what does everyone else look like?
Society looks us from head to toe and says that we’re not good enough. They put up thousands of advertisements urging us into a mold that’ll turn us into everyone else. But here’s another problem: What exactly is everyone else supposed to look like?
With all of us, even Christians, judging one another—it’s no wonder our world has become devoid of color. There’s nothing wrong with minimal, but if a society’s art reflects the times—we reduce our artwork to black and white and shades of gray. Where is the color? Where’s the room to be the beautiful masterpieces God created us to be?
In the end, we cannot design ourselves. In the finale, we are here because of the loving touch of an intelligent Designer Who makes no mistakes. So get the haircut that makes you happy and put on some eye makeup, but do not criticize yourself. It isn’t in our place to change the essence of what we are—human beings, anointed heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven.
It’s far from us to tell the Lord that He made one mistake in how He designed us. That’s like the Mona Lisa coming to life and telling Leonardo da Vinci that she doesn’t like how he made her eyes. It’s what she’s remembered most for, and in the end, she was stolen because she was so beautiful. It was covered by news reporters as a kidnapping.
If the Mona Lisa were to wake up and tell Leonardo da Vinci that he made a mistake with her, would it be true? If she were to wake up and tell him she wasn’t special, that she didn’t like how her eyes were different, that he hadn’t painted her in front of the right mountain—would he listen and do her over?
That’s how it is with you and the Lord. Every detail about you was put there for a reason. When you look at yourself in the mirror, picture it as a frame, and you are the Mona Lisa. The world sees what you can’t, because Original Sin made us our own worst critics. We will never see how beautiful we are with our own eyes.
Yet we dare question a decision the Lord made—about the shape of our noses, our eye color, even the things that make us cry.
It isn’t in our place to criticize, but be thankful that He put so much thought into making us different and beautiful. God is King—but He is also Master Artist. He designed the cosmos and decided where every star was to be placed, how brightly it would glow, and when it would vanish. With these same hands, He designed you.
He designed you, careful with every shade for your skin and hair and eyes, your fingerprint and your voice. You’re here on earth for a purpose, and someday we will all find out what our roles were in the great story He is writing.
As we enter a new year, let’s look with confidence and joy at these verses affirming our worth and beauty:
I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! My very self you knew; my bones were not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned as in the depths of the earth. Your eyes foresaw my actions; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be. How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them!
Psalm 139:14-17, NAB
