Skin Deep Beauty...

I grew up in an all male house, apart from Mum. I now live with my female dominated family and I'm noticing that not only are there hair bobbles every where - except of course when someone needs one - little bottles of lotions festoon the bathroom. It used to be easy getting into the bath, now a minefield of body shop products!

"this place is ugly... maybe the beauty is deeper?"

Bethan is getting to an age where she is bothered about looks. Tears over bad hair days, a concerned eye for fashion. Make up, hair straightners! Who'd be a Dad! I blame the pre-occupation with the superficiality of beauty in the media, the plastic beauty of Disney. Wall to wall 'you're so ugly but we can fix your teeth' docusoaps. We try challenge this worldview at every opportunity and try to point out that real beauty has a deeper meaning.

Not so long ago driving through Leytonstone in East London, Bethan looking at the tired, sad and broken shop fronts commented "this place is ugly... maybe the beauty is deeper?"

Something profound in that?

Comments

BrownEyedGirl said…
As a Mother of 4 girls this really struck a cord within me.
How awesome that she would have eyes to look beyond the surface of things. To look for a deeper beauty in the world around her.
1:44 AM
Anonymous said…
Great post Gordon!

To find beauty amongst the ugliness of the world is not an easy job, yet it was something that Jesus was so good at doing. When the people of Jericho looked at Zaccheaus they saw the ugliness of a selfish life, whilst Jesus looked at him and saw the beauty of the life that was possible!

I think that one of a Christian's greatest challenges is to always seek the beauty in peoples lives and find ways to help them find it themselves.
7:24 AM
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