Four years ago, when I was in Marikina for the Sunday worship service, my then 4-year-old grandson, Ishy, came near me, took away the book I was reading, hugged me tightly, and, ever so sweetly, whispered in my ear,” Mommy, you’re so beautiful!” What??!! Me? Beautiful?? I was so astounded I felt I was being TRANSPORTED from planet earth to the most distant asteroids or was it into cloud nine? Me?…Beautiful? With my BENT figure? my LIMPING stride? my DAMAGED ribs? my THINNING hair? my RECEDING hairline? my WRINKLED face? my DIMMING eyesight? my LOOSE teeth? and my other broken, unsightly, UNPRINTABLE body parts? BEAUTIFUL? I had no heart to raise a finger of protest because honestly, I was not about, NOT YET ANYWAY, to KILL prematurely, the EUPHORIC sensation one feels when called “BEAUTIFUL”.
And to think the words came out from the mouth of a four-year-old boy! PSALM 8:2 succinctly puts it, ” Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings You have ordained strength because of your enemies that You may silence the enemy and the avenger.
“People say that children seldom lie. They label things just the way they see them. They speak the truth without reservation, without hesitation, truth which adults wouldn’t otherwise, dare reveal. Well, ” Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Thanks to the author of this quote, MARGARET WOLFE HUNGERFORD. At least, I have her quote to hang on to when questioned and/ or challenged about my being beautiful.
That very moment, four years ago, a lesson for eternity was reinforced by my grandson: That no matter how broken and deformed we are, no matter how messy we have made of ourselves, no matter how much dirt we have smeared our soul with, and no matter how deeply we have sunk into the mire of our innumerable transgressions and the folly of our wrong decisions, THE FACT REMAINS AND WILL FOREVER REMAIN AS A BASTION OF HOPE TO THE HOPELESS, THAT GOD STILL LOVES US. And yes, WE ARE STILL BEAUTIFUL IN HIS EYES, Unbelievable? Read Roman 5:8 But God demonstrates His OWN LOVE for us in this: WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS CHRIST DIED FOR US.