Just As Beautiful

Tonight's a little late to be writing. I'll usually tackle a post on Thursday, but it's Friday night and it's time to get words on paper.

So I'm going to tell you a story.

My Mom's a flower farmer, and we sell loads of blooms at the farmers markets on Saturdays. Every flower is picked today, the Friday before market. I was in the garden barely fifteen minutes ago, and I was using my snips and cutting the Dahlias and putting them into their buckets.

The thing about Dahlias is that they don't open further once they've been cut, so you have to pick them when they're open enough to be beautiful, but not damaged.

I'm plodding along, taking the organza bags off and cutting the bloom and putting it in my left hand before throwing them into a bucket. However, I come up to an orange waterlily dahlia, which Mom doesn't remember ordering, and I cut it like every other, then begin taking off the side buds and leaves with my snips.

And all of a sudden I get a giant squirt of Dahlia juises in my eye.

"Ugh," I say to Mom, wiping the juice off my face. "The ugly one squirted me."

"What makes it ugly?" Mom asks me.

I'll shrug and make a comment in my head about how we'd been talking about not having ordered that one earlier. I've also been picking Decorative and Ball dahlias for the last half an hour, and this orange dahlia only has a few petals unfurled. That's just it's shape.

Before I can continue putting it in the bucket, Mom takes it out of my hand and says:

"She's not ugly, she's just not ready."

Mom proceeds to tell me I picked it too early and that all the green petals in the middle needed a little more time.

Here’s a photo:

And I got thinking, like I usually do.

"She's not ugly, she's just not ready."

"She's not ugly, she's just not ready."

"She's not ugly, she's just not ready."

I can relate to that.

Looks are such a big part of the world in the 21st century. They're what define social media and, often, many girls' minds.

There are so many people, including myself, who are disappointed with their body. They're almost sad that God didn't make them have gorgeous hair or an amazing smile.

Some people don't like their voice.

Others don't like their body.

Some don't like a certain birthmark or that one side of their face makes them ashamed.

I'm often faced with the same feelings. Even the girls who have their eyes in God's word only see what they're ashamed of sometimes.

And I'm not here to say it's okay. I'm not here to say you just have to start thinking of yourself as God's amazing creation.

...

Actually that's half of what I'm going to say. But the other half is a little different.

Part one:

God did make you one of a kind, and like Aslan said: 'things never happen the same way twice.'

You won't get this person's hair, or their fingernails, or their face shape because it's theirs. Perfected to fit them, not you.

You are perfected to fit you and that's...amazing.

Genesis 1;27 says 'So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female, he created them.'

And

Ephesians 2:20 'For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance.'

And

Psalms 139:14 'I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.'

Part two:

WHO CARES!?

No one in their right mind should judge you, or look at your insecurities like they're wrong. Because they aren't.

You're just as beautiful as when you wore that low ponytail everyday and rocked it with courage and grace.

You're just as beautiful when you had they one pimple in the middle of your forehead.

You're just as beautiful as when you had a bad hair day and threw it in braids, even though you hate braids.

Because

'You're not ugly,

You're just not ready.'

Not ready yet.

You got this,

-Claudia