Someone took the time to analyze the faces of the 90 famous people who were included in the book, The Faces of Greatness.
These blemishes did not deter them though. These people were some of history’s greats!
Then too:
I have written for publication numerous times. For inspiration sake, I carry an article in my billfold. It is from Time magazine. The piece is entitled “A River of Chicken Soup.” It is about the Chicken Soup series of books. The wildly successful series now encompasses better than 200 titles with over 100 million copies in print in 54 languages worldwide. The interesting thing about all of this is, according to the Time magazine article, “One major publisher after another turned the two authors down cold, and after the 33rd rejection, their agent quit.” Nonetheless, they pressed on with a firm belief in their product and the rest, as they say, is publishing history. I have heard it said, “Others could overcome their obstacles, but my case is different.” The only difference is that some people fight to overcome their obstacles, while others sit back and let their obstacles overcome them. Where do you find yourself in that equation? The Redeemed Team Do you realize that a survey taken a while back noted that 95% of all high school students, and 100% of all movie stars, would change something about their physical being if only they could? And then, according to the book, Inside America by pollster Louis Harris, 99% of the American women and 94% of the American men would change something about their looks if possible.
The late Ann Landers listed problems with one's physical appearance: weight; birthmarks; baldness; height; etc., as being one of the ten most common problems people wrote to her about. Do you relate? Is there something you don't like about yourself; something you'd change if only you could? The Bible rarely deals with a person’s physical beauty or lack of the same. We know that Sarah, the wife of Abraham, was beautiful. The same could be said of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, and Rachel, Jacob’s wife. Other beautiful ladies of Scripture include Abigail and Bathsheba, both wives of David, and Esther the Queen. This short list of six women covers the ladies that the Bible specifically describes as being beautiful. We have no way of knowing whether Abraham was handsome or not, fat or skinny, tall or short. His physical characteristics meant absolutely nothing in the passage of time. You see, God did not call Abraham to be Mr. Universe. He wanted him to father a nation, to prove faithful, to be obedient. To God, those factors proved much more important than the amount of hair on his head, or the size of his biceps. He was God's man -- that was all that really mattered! When Jesus was here on earth, He never distinguished himself as a man of extraordinary physical attractiveness. In fact, Isaiah 53:2 states: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.” The Apostle Paul was probably a short man and more than likely suffered from very poor eyesight. He had a prison record that was quite long and may have suffered from bouts of sickness. Oh, I must mention David. Scripture records that he was “ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features”. But, outside of his obvious way with the ladies, David’s handsome features did very little for the brother.
If you think that all of your problems would be over if only you were one of the 50 beautiful people in People Magazine, you might want to think again. Physical beauty is not a magic ticket that guarantees one a wonderful life. The Redeemed Team I love the book “Where is God When It Hurts?” by Phil Yancey. In the book the author tells of when Dr. Paul Brand (a noted hand surgeon) spoke to some folks who had Hanson’s Disease -- leprosy. In his talk, Brand focused on the hands of Jesus. The hands of the baby Jesus. The hands of Jesus the child. The rough and callused carpenter’s hands. Next he spoke of the hands of Christ the physician, the healer.
'Then,' continued the good doctor, 'there was His crucified hands. It hurts me to think of a nail being driven through the center of my hand, because I know what goes on there, the tremendous complex of tendons and nerves and blood vessels and muscles. It's impossible to drive a spike through its center without crippling it. The thought of those healing hands being crippled reminds me of what Christ was prepared to endure. In that act He identified Himself with all the deformed and crippled human beings in the world. Not only was He able to endure poverty with the poor, weariness with the tired, but--clawed hands with the crippled.' The effect on the listening patients, all social outcasts, was electrifying. Jesus...a cripple, with a claw-like hand like theirs? Yancey concludes the illustration with this point: “Yes, the pains of life hurt, but it helps me to know that the Great Physician Himself, the Wounded Physician, has felt every stab of pain and every sorrow. Of a truth, Jesus didn't ask man how it feels to hurt, to bleed, to die. Rather, He, in love in sacrifice, became the hurting, the bleeding, the dying.” Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “We have a high priest (Jesus) who can feel it when we are weak and hurting….” As you make your way through your storm, let me encourage you today to reach out to the healing hands of Jesus. As you do, think of His nail prints. Those scars are meant to remind you, Jesus gets it because Jesus has experienced it. And Jesus experienced it so you can be healed, blessed as well as victorious; so you can make it through it. The Redeemed Team |