***
A 16 year old girl gets scouted by a modeling agency while hanging out at a mall. She’s 5’10”, brunette, and naturally quite thin. She’s always thought she was pretty. Still, it was surprising. She liked what she saw in the mirror. Though she knew people who were prettier. She really wished she had her best friend’s eyes. But what can you do. And hey, it’s a modeling gig!
So for a few years, she models for various companies, walks the runway dozens and dozens of times, and even makes a few TV ads. Photographers and agents wax eloquent about her beauty, and the money rolls in. Sometimes they edit her photos. She didn’t mind the occasional virtual improvement. No one likes a bad picture. But most of the time they don’t bother. She’s just naturally photogenic. And she works out (the cameras aren’t forgiving, you know, and there’s no Photoshop on the runway), but she doesn’t starve herself. She just eats healthy and goes to a personal trainer a few times a week. She’s so busy that’s about all she can manage. It works well enough.
One day, she decides to drop her own name into Google. That can be a scary thing. Finding out what thousands of people think of you. Thousands who can hide behind the wall of anonymity. Sort of like the audience in a coliseum…
Of course, she sees a number of her modeling pictures come up. But near the top of the links, she sees that a recent photoshoot she did caught some less than stellar attention, as summarized succinctly in an editorial.
Apparently, says the columnist, this 19 year old girl is not a ‘real’ woman. She ‘looks like a little boy’. Too thin, too skinny. Not curvy enough. Apparently men don’t really like that. 33-24-34 is a little boyish. They want a real woman, not a ‘pre-pubescent’ girl like this.
… “But I’m 19!”
And her heart breaks a little. Whatever. Just brush it off.
She clicks back in the browser, and notices the next link.
Turns out that it’s a Christian site. And it has one of her pictures in the article. You know the sort. Where the author just needs to add some glitter to the page. Something visual to grab the reader.
Turns out she’s a visual foil in a piece written on ‘fake beauty’ versus ‘real beauty’.
She feels a little ugly for some reason.
***
A 16 year old girl walks into school. The eleventh grade can be brutal. Especially when you’re getting close to clinically obese.
The asthma doesn’t help. And the doctors said something about a problem with her metabolism. What was it, hypothyroidism? She never took bio.
And in truth, she didn’t really care about the details. Excuses didn’t make her any more attractive to the boys. Who knew that 'I have a thyroid condition’ never got anyone a date? There was nothing she could do at this point to get their attention. Well, the good kind of attention, anyway. They saw her alright. She could see them laughing at her now and then.
Sure, the fat jokes had all but disappeared by now. They were worse in elementary. But every minute of every day was a reminder that, well, she was fat. She knew that’s what others were thinking. And that’s what she thought too.
Anyway, with her dismal social life she has plenty of time to spend on the internet. The internet is always there to help you find something you’d like to read. Or that you think you’d like to read. One day she stumbles across an article saying some stuff about true beauty being on the inside. There’s a picture of a gorgeous brunette girl at the top of the article. “If that’s fake, I’ll take it!” she sighs.
But that’s not what really gets to her. Lots of people say models like that one in the picture are unhealthy. Too thin. Guys don’t like that either. And it’s a little comforting, really. Being able to see the flaws in another.
Still, there’s a bigger problem.
She doesn’t think she’s beautiful on the inside, either. She feels like a wretch. Inside and out. Years of bullying and abuse have left her hopelessly unstable, depressed, angry, and bitter. She has about as much of a chance of making herself beautiful inward as she does outward. She knows she’s awful. Who would want her?
She wouldn’t want herself either!
She feels a little ugly for some reason.
***
Give this song/video [by Jonny Diaz] a listen:
Now listen to the artist’s commentary:
SOI have a few thoughts on this. And up front, let me say I don’t have issue with Diaz’s problem with a purely materialistic view of beauty. Generally, in my view, the approach many Christians seem to take towards beauty is docetic. And it avoids the real hardships of the sufferings of being ugly. I don’t want to do that here. I don’t want to try to puff someone up for a week with some sentimental platitudes. Ugliness is real.
Anyway, my real problem with this song is this: I find it somewhat hopeless. As in, it doesn’t inspire, it doesn’t encourage – I find it saddening. And that’s because I pondered the statement, “There could never be a more beautiful you.”
O, my hope is that this isn’t true.
I’ll try to explain why.
I don’t blame a single person for wanting to be more beautiful.
Matter of fact, I long for that day.
(And don’t confuse any of this with the soul sapping self-esteem approach to dealing with ugliness.)
See, what this song neglects is the pervasive and destructive effects of sin, and the just punishment upon it. Yes, I realize it’s under 4 minutes long. I’m not asking for the Institutes here. And actually, it almost implicitly denies the doctrine of sin. Many people are not beautiful, and those that are, won’t be for long. And none of us are naturally beautiful on the inside.
Our mouths are open graves. Think about that for a minute.
The pretty model will die. And the fat girl will die. From dust we came, and to dust we go.
And this is because our sin has consigned us to death and decay. We are under the judgment of God. And ugliness is part of the punishment for sin.
However, there is good news.
What if someone could take the punishment for sin upon himself. What if someone else could bear it, so that you could be freed from it. What if someone else could be made ugly, that is, could bear your deserved ugliness, so that you could be made beautiful. What if someone could take your punishment so that you could be beautiful. And what if someone willingly did this for you.
The good news is that this has happened.
For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 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 crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
This suffering servant’s “appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.”
This servant is Jesus the Christ.
And the reason why He was marred and killed was to save sinners from their sins. He bore the punishment from God in His own flesh so that all who believe in Him would be freed from that punishment.
In light of this, let me state this as plainly as I can:
There most certainly can be a more beautiful you.
Your body can be more beautiful.
Your soul can be more beautiful.
Which is to say, YOU can be more beautiful.
You can be more beautiful than you are now - As much more beautiful as the sun is brighter and more glorious than the moon.
1 Corinthians 15:41-42
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead.
So I would like to offer a different encouragement to all the girls. Your lack of perfection is a punishment for sin. Not just yours personally. But also because you were born of a sinner. You’re guilty.
But Jesus, sent from God, died and took up life again so that His followers would be raised with a physical body more beautiful than anyone can possibly imagine, where there will be no asthma, no too ‘thin’ or ‘fat’ - no imperfections whatsoever. Just perfection in the full diversity of beauty. And this renewal of body and soul is possible because the punishment for sin was put upon Him. Sin got us into ugliness, and the righteousness of another can get us out of it. People can be reborn, not of a sinner, but of a righteous man.
So if you rely on Christ your very body – that one you hate in the mirror - and your soul, will be transformed out of the wretched mess it is and into a dazzling form which would make the most beautiful human today look bland in comparison. Just turn from your sin and to Him in faith. And it’s the hope of this promise of renewal which will enable you to endure ugliness in this life. And if you already believe, hold fast.
The Christian HOPE is a BODILY resurrection.
We’re not Gnostics. And we’re not materialists. You are your body and soul together. That’s you. And thanks be to God that Jesus died to redeem us, both body and soul, from our sins, so that we could be renewed in glorious perfection. This isn’t just for girls. What of the physically deformed? What of the dying? The elderly?
I suppose my overall thought is that this song might actually undermine the Gospel itself. Sentimental and uplifting platitudes are no substitute for the message of the Substitute who took the very punishment which brings ugliness upon Himself, so that those who are united with Him in faith will know eternal beauty.
All that is to say, Jesus died and was raised so that, among many other things, there could be a more beautiful you.
