The other day, I was on the Gypsy Housing page on Facebook when the most interesting thing occurred to me. A woman had put up a picture of her rabbit, and she got a compliment. The person complimenting was like "Pudding [the bunny] is beautiful. She almost doesn't look real." The original poster responded with a picture of Pudding's breed, saying they all look like that, and that they appear to be wearing eyeliner :)
I thought that was so cute, but it immediately occurred to me that humans do not have such black-rimmed eyes. It made me think how there are certain features we do have that animals don't (have you ever seen an animal with lips or human eyes?). God is so purposeful in what He gives us. So why don't we have eyes like Pudding? And why do we give ourselves features we don't need?
See, the human face is part of a special and intimate work of art God crafted purposefully, with His own hands. Did you know that when He created the world, He spoke much of it into existence, but He actually crafted you? The shape of your eyes, the color of your cheeks and lips, down to the shapes and shadows of your jaw and cheek bones. Then He said, "Beautiful."
The beauty industry has made it seem commonplace to change your face and tell you that it's necessary, like they are doing you a favor. Once I went to the mall, and this lady at a makeup counter convinced me to let her do a free makeover. I figured it may give me time to get to know her (I like meeting new people), so I did. But as she did my make up, I think she didn't realize how insulting she was. "Oh, we can even out your skin tone here, get rid of this, add more of that..." I thought how my skin tone isn't off or discolored (it happens to be different hues in different places based on shadow, shape, and blood flow, which is natural), and my face is pretty the way it is.
A major heart-change occurred for me last week, though. I had been enjoying my morning before going in to work, and I forgot to put on any make up. I noticed it when I went into the bathroom at the office, but my heart reacted differently than ever. Usually I would think of how dull and colorless I looked, but I didn't. I thought instead, "Wow! I can see myself, with all the personality nuances that show up on my face when it's uncluttered!" It was like, rather than seeing make up, or seeing eyes and nose, etc., I saw me, which is internal, peeking out! I don't want to do make up much anymore. :)
Then God revealed something so deep! The Bible talks about how, with God's light shining in us, we can go about "with unveiled faces" that reflect the bright light in us. We do this proudly because, even if people misunderstand His love in us, we know and He knows. That's enough! So instead of veiling what is in us, we refuse to hide our identities. But I thought how make-up is actually a way to veil yourself! It's a means of looking the way we are told we should look, making pale brows the 'right' color, or "bringing out" your eye color as if it's not already vibrant. Then I thought about the other ways we veil ourselves. Taking the jobs we're told are "good jobs," or seeking men who look like celebrities instead of men that our true hearts are attracted to.
Friend, you don't need rabbit eyes, and you don't need to veil yourselves to be the way you ought to be. You already are the way you should be! God loves you, and He can take you on a journey of wholeness! He'll show you who you really are, and you can trade the veil in for reflecting His light! Enjoy Him this evening, and have a delightful journey!
*Photo from http://behyorabbitry.com/dwarf-hotot/
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