One Day

There was one day you can probably remember when people's faces changed in your eyes.

They were no longer just faces. One day, all of a sudden, for whatever reason, you began to see the individual features of faces. That includes your own.

One day you noticed a round face and a heart-shaped face, and all the other types of faces. You noticed how close together or far apart different eyes on each of those different faces are. Whether the eyes are deep set or whether the eyebrows hang over them. You noticed the shape and length of the nose, how high the cheekbones are, how big the forehead is. You noticed colors and shapes of lips--how close that mouth is to the nose above it. You noticed ears that stick out, or small ears or floppy ears. You noticed teeth, some white, some not so white. You noticed new things on every face.

You began to put labels on faces: bird, bear, horse, or anything. And you started labeling your own face.

Then you started hating it.

Well, you don't hate all of your face. You might love the color of your eyes, or your straight sparkly teeth, but you probably hate your nose (or something else). You can't even look at yourself in the mirror or on film without seeing whatever you hate, clear as day. It frustrates you. You begin to dwell on it all the time. You start comparing yourself to those around you with prettier noses. You may believe your eyes to be a nice color in comparison to others' eyes, but you're not really thinking about your eyes, are you?

Well it needs to stop. Time and time again I've wasted my life worrying about how I may not add up to another, or may not be everything I need to be to have success. It only hurts me! In life we are often told to gain a larger perspective. I think it goes for physical appearance as well. One day you did notice all of the separate features of faces including yours, but why do they matter? Why can't we be like little children again: seeing a whole, valuable, shining face that is worth gold?

And maybe our physical appearances don't matter at all in the sight of God. Maybe all he really cares about is if we let the Light of Christ within us shine, 'cause we all have it.