Beauty Marks…

What are the marks of beauty? I mean really, what it is that defines beauty? What is it that makes a person beautiful?

As I prepare to speak at a Ladies Tea at a Senior Citizen’s Center, I am thinking about all the marks of beauty those ladies possess. Some may call them wrinkles, but I call them laugh lines…you know those deep lines around the mouth that deepen when they smile. How beautiful they are. The deeper the lines the greater the joy that life has experienced.

Then you have the brow or forehead wrinkles…how precious they are. These are the precious marks left from years of watching, worrying and and hopefully praying over their friends, and family. You see the creases made when they are told of the death of a loved one, when their heart is broken because their child is in harms way defending our country, when their best friend has cancer, these are the marks of beauty for they show the deep concern these women share for everyone they love

Then there are the liver spots, or old age spots, as some would call them, can there be beauty in these marks, you may ask? Why yes, these beauty marks show just how hard this body has fought the good fight, has weathered the storms of life, has withstood the test of time, and lived to tell about it. These beauty marks tell of days spent at the beach before there was such a thing as such screen, when beauty was more than skin deep, and when the most important beauty trait a person possessed was their inner beauty.

Finally, we have our crowning glory…our silver hair. It is truly a mark of beauty…it must be so because even Miss America is crowned with a crown made of silver that sparkles and shines!

Barbie may think she is the ideal of beauty…but I’ll take my laugh lines, wrinkled brow, liver spots, and silver hair for they show the dignity, wisdom, love, and grace that can only be perfected with age!

Dear Lord,
Thank you for my Mother and the other wise women who have taught me to grow old gracefully. While I still may hide my gray hair and use my anti-wrinkle cream, help me to remember, that with age comes beauty beyond compare. Thank you for the beauty you are perfecting in me. Thank you for the beauty in the women around me…for my mentors. Help me to always know that beauty is so much more than skin deep. Help us all to see your scars for the beauty of salvation that they brought and still bring.
In Jesus Name,
Amen