“God wanted me to look like my mom, but my daddy wanted me to look like him. I guess God knows best,” says Wesley, 5.
Well, we don’t know what dad looks like, but we’re certain God knows best.
Sharkmen, 6, has a different perspective: “God made me handsome just like my dad, and I am very happy about it.” Dad must be happy, too.
Sharkmen is not the only confident kid. Brady, 6, says, “Man, God made me great! I can run very fast, too.”
Brady, you may need all that speed if you go around announcing how great you are.
“God likes curly hair because not everyone has it,” says Allison, 5.
It’s easy to focus on what we don’t have instead of what God has given us. Have you noticed how many people with curly hair want it straight and vice versa? Hair stylists notice because it helps pay their bills.
“Lots of people do not have freckles,” says Ashley, 7. “They don’t know what they are missing.”
Tyler, 6, gave the shortest answer as to how we can accept our appearance when he wrote, “Paint.”
I’m sure Tyler is referring to the cosmetic industry. Someone once said, “If the barn needs painting, paint it.”
While we’re on the subject of beauty, Corrie, 6, says, “If God didn’t make us pretty, why does everyone say how pretty I am?”
Whether or not people tell you that you’re beautiful, Aubree, 5, has a simple twoword tip that can help everyone with their appearance: “Take baths.”
And now, the big question, “Why do we look different from each other?” Max, 5, says, “God made us look different so he knows who we are.”
I see. Our appearance is like an ID card.
“I can learn to accept my appearance by not comparing myself to other people,” says Houston, 10. “I can also learn to accept my appearance by thinking, ‘We are the clay, and God is the potter’ and ‘Hasn’t the potter power over the clay?’” (Romans 9:20-21).
Good thinking, Houston. Bible thinking is always good thinking because it gives us the view from above, and that view puts us into a large orbit. We see ourselves properly related to God.
Comparing ourselves with people imprisons us in a tiny world. When we realize that the same potter who molded the universe molded us, it frees us to accept our appearance as a part of God’s unique creation. It opens the door for us to see things from God’s perspective, and that is a very different view indeed.
Concerning God’s only Son, the prophet Isaiah wrote: “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
“He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him; he was despised, and we did not esteem him.
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:2-6).
“I can learn to accept my appearance as a unique creation of God if I could have a little more money so that maybe I can get a pony!” says Madeline, 10.
First you get the pony, and then you’ll want the hat, western shirt and boots. Everyone wants a pony. It’s something that we desire to make us look better. But after we get our pony, there’s always another one just over the horizon.
For years, my pony has been a baby blue Jaguar convertible. If I could only get a Jag, I know I would look sooo much better. But then, I would have to have the little sports car hat and driving gloves as well.
“I can be happy with the way I look by remembering when Seth’s sister said I look cute,” says Joshua, 6.
Hey, if Seth’s sister says you’re cute, that’s great. But what if another girl says you look like a bull with buck teeth? What happens then?
Grant, 11, has something to say about this: “Throughout my life, people called me names because that’s the way most people think about my looks. God created me, and you should know God created you the way you are for a reason.”
Only the divine perspective can lift us above the chatter of people who try to get ahead by name calling. Every time I fly on an airplane, I’m always amazed at how quickly the people and cities below become so small. If you could travel to the moon, the entire Earth would appear as a dot. The closer you become to God, the less you’ll be disturbed by the opinions of cruel people.
When you know that God created you for a reason, you can accept your appearance as part of God’s plan. This doesn’t mean you should live on Twinkies and Kool-Aid. Accepting your appearance as part of God’s plan includes being a good steward of what God gave you.
While we’re on the subject of food, I know my wife will be glad to hear what Chelsea, 11, said: “I’m like a piece of chocolate candy, and God is the candy maker. He molds my life to make it fit his image.”
There will probably be times when we feel more like a dried-up turnip than a piece of delectable Godiva chocolate. During these times, we have to lock onto what God is doing and ignore other voices.
“Sometimes you might not feel like you look good, but it doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside. It matters what’s on the inside,” says Andrew, 9.
The story of the prophet Samuel’s search for the Lord’s anointed man to replace King Saul reminds us of the difficulty of looking past outward appearances. Samuel was a prophet of God, yet when he saw David’s older brother, he thought this surely must be the Lord’s anointed.
“But the Lord said to Samuel, `Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’” (I Samuel 16:7).
Think about this: God wants to deliver us from living by appearance.
Memorize this truth: I Samuel 16:7 quoted above.
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