"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." -Ecclesiastes 3:11
Jonny Diaz, contemporary Christian singer, wrote and recorded a song called, "More Beautiful You." The first time I heard this song was in 2011 when my best friend and I attended a small concert in our hometown where Jonny Diaz performed. I instantly fell in love with the message of the song and the purpose behind it.
God created you. He connected every bone, placed each hair precisely on your head, and spotted your face with freckles. Each of us is different and unique, but all are made in His perfect image. All of the flaws you see in the mirror or that people point out, God made them and He made them a special part of you.
Because we do not look like our Hollywood idols, we become obsessed with fitting in and forget about our worth and purpose. Before your creation, before you were even a thought in your parents' mind, God aligned a life for you. You were "made to fill a purpose that only you could do." God has great things in store for your life. And I can promise you that God's plan is always more beautiful than any of your disappointments.
Our culture drives into us the ideals of a beautiful girl, what she should look like and how she should act. And all too often are these tips contradictory to what God wants of us. Relative to Diaz's song, at a young age we start to feel the pressures of society and what we are supposed to become. Beauty is portrayed as our goal in life, and we are expected to go to all lengths to achieve it. To fit in and fulfill societies expectations, we go to extremes.
"Little girl 21, things that you're already done, anything to get ahead"
Sometimes, giving up our purity and pushing ourselves to the edge is what it takes to please our boyfriends and society. We stop eating because he wants a skinny girlfriend; we give ourselves up because he wants to have sex; we trash our morals because he doesn't agree with them. But we have a God who loves us, the person who we are and the person we've become. You see, the thing about our God is that no matter how far we stray, no matter how far away we push Him, He will always be here.
"As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us" -Psalm 103:12
As long as we are willing to come to God, His grace welcomes us with open arms. It's never too late to turn around and run back to God. We all stray from God's expectations for us, but His love for us is so great that He oversees all of our mistakes and flaws.
There could truly never be a more beautiful you. God has a specific plan for your life, and it's unlike everyone else's. Only we can fill our shoes, only you can carry out the life that God has in store for you. In every way, shape and form, you are beautiful because a beautiful, gracious God made you. Let the unconditional love of your God determine your worth, and you too will see the beauty in yourself.
"I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God’s thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking." - George MacDonald
