i am not beautiful

one of the first things i noticed when i started watching tv from other places is that the main characters are not always pretty or traditionally beautiful. they're old. they're not geniuses.

they're just regular people.

vera, the main character in a british detective show, is a single mother who has to deal with all the problems that go with raising children as a single mother. she's not even a great mother. she does the best she can.

the main characters in stella, another british tv show, are just typical people living in a small town (in wales). some don't have good teeth; some aren't very smart.

none of them would win a beauty contest. 

we like our love stories about beautiful people, people who make a lovely picture.

it's like we think only the beautiful should have their stories told.

only the beautiful should fall in love.

only the beautiful are we to care about.





but the truth is that most of us are not beautiful on the outside. we have acne. our face is not symmetrical. we're overweight. we're underweight. our teeth are crooked.


i have never seen an ugly jesus either.

even in our faith, we want our heroes to look good.

we want our jesus to be beautiful

blond with blue eyes... the ideal of the painters who were portraying him... beautiful as they wanted to be

(of course, as a descendant of david, he could have been a red-head.)

but i've never seen that either.

even a black jesus is depicted as beautiful

but what if jesus wasn't beautiful? 


a beautiful messiah was not predicted.

He had no form nor comeliness, that we should look upon him, Nor beauty that we should delight in him. 

Isaiah 53:2

peter, a disciple of jesus said this

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

jesus says it is what is within us that counts; not what people see on the outside.

 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

so why do we gravitate to stories of the beautiful.

i think it's because we want to be beautiful, and i think it's because we believe our stories aren't interesting enough.



orange is the new black is a storytelling show. it tells the story of the forgotten in our society, the not-beautiful, the often despised. we see their hopes and dreams, their pain and despair.

they become people, not stereotypes.


jesus was a storyteller. 

that's the main thing he did.

his stories were about farmers and a woman's lost coin, about shepherds and a man looking for his son. he saw the heart of the people in their everyday life. he saw what was important to them and used it to show what was important in the kingdom of heaven.

today they would be of shopping and fixing meals and bathing children. he would talk about our smart phones and welfare and tv pop stars.

jesus took our stories and made them his stories.

he made our stories beautiful. he wove the message of the gospel into them. our stories become good news.

******

there's nothing wrong with being physically beautiful. a beautiful child or man or woman is like a work of art.

it is something to be appreciated.

but beauty doesn't make us worthy.







being loved makes us beautiful.

loving others makes us beautiful.

our life is our story... and they are all worth telling.

i am not beautiful, but i'm beautiful.