For the effective marketing of products, the world sets a standard for beauty that no person can achieve, not even our best models. The premise is absurd, but we still follow it like children entranced by the pied piper’s tune.
What is so absurd about making ourselves beautiful? Pick your favorite model, the person you’d most want to be like. What happens with such models when they are pictured in the media? Out of many takes and retakes, the best angles and lighting is chosen. The chance that the model would look this good in real life is zero, and that doesn’t consider all the makeup and photo retouching that’s used.
Let’s suppose the impossible goal could be reached. Through the magic of modern cosmetic surgery, you and a dozen friends are made to look exactly like your model. If such a dream happened, it would immediately be seen as a failure. Why? Because we’d be alike, allowing no one to stand out as beautiful.
Some will argue that a little paint looks good on an old barn. But instead of trying to look twenty years younger and be someone other than who we are, maybe we should consider how people are often awed by a unique picture of a rustic old barn with its broken-down farming equipment.
Why are we so beautiful? Because God has a unique purpose for each of us. He sees great beauty in making of us what he wants, not what the world says we should be.
I praise you, Lord, because of the awesome, unique way that you created me. You did wonderfully well, and my whole being knows and declares this truth. — Psalm 139:14 Frank Ball paraphrase