In God’s Eyes, Appearance Isn’t Important
By Zhang Man
Fang Jing was walking in a bustling street, people passing her group by group. Frequently she looked enviously at those women passing by; they were well-made and sprightly on their feet. Fang Jing consciously sucked in her bulging belly and massaged it. She then heaved a little sigh: When young, I was just plain-looking and did not have a good figure. Now I am middle-aged and get ever fatter. I am not yet 50 years old, but my hair has turned gray, which makes me look a bit special in the crowd.
What troubled Fang Jing the most was that she had to buy new clothes because some of her clothes were too small to fit her fat body. However, she was most afraid to buy clothes, because many clothes which were suitable for her age could not fit her. Whenever seeing the beautiful clothes hung in the stores, she even dared not try them on. Looking at those women of her age who looked young as well as pretty in those clothes because of their nice figures, she felt envious and jealous. Because she was fat, she could but buy clothes in the old women’s clothing shop, though she was not that old.
Fang Jing was upset by not only her figure but also her hair. Young as she was, she had had gray hair and had to dye it several times every year. That really cost her a lot and made her suffer. But she just couldn’t leave her hair as it was. Since in present-day society, people usually first look others up and down whenever they interact with others. Fang Jing thought: My clothes are shabby enough, and my gray hair even more makes me look unpresentable. If I don’t have it dyed, I will be looked down upon. Besides, some friends urged as well, ‘You’re not that old, but how could you make yourself look so unsightly like an old woman. Hurry to dye your hair!’ Thinking of that, Fang Jing subconsciously looked up in the sky, and her eyes were pricked by the bright sunlight.
Suddenly, she was reminded of a passage of God’s word she read in the meeting that afternoon, “There are often those who are under many illusions about their birth and are often very dissatisfied with it, resenting their family, their appearance, their gender, even the time of their birth. Yet people never understand why they are born into a particular family or why they look a certain way. They do not know that regardless of where they are born or how they look, they are to play various roles and fulfill different missions in the Creator’s management—this purpose will never change. In the Creator’s eyes, the place one is born, one’s gender, one’s physical appearance, are all temporary things. They are a series of minuscule jots, tiny symbols in each phase of His management of the whole mankind. And a person’s real destination and ending are not determined by his or her birth in any particular phase, but by the mission that he or she fulfills in every life, by the Creator’s judgment upon them when His management plan is complete” (“God Himself, the Unique III”).
Pondering God’s words once more, Fang Jing understood the reason why she was dissatisfied with her appearance and disliked her fat figure and prematurely gray hair was that she did not recognize God’s sovereignty, did not know how to live a meaningful life, and thus always lived by Satan’s viewpoint—once you have nice figure and appearance you can win others’ high regard, and only such a life is full of flavor. God’s words reminded her in time that regardless of how nice our figure and appearance are, they all won’t affect the life course the Creator has arranged and predestined for every one of us.
From God’s words, Fang Jing understood, that she was born into this world was ordained by God, and was God giving her a chance to fulfill her mission. Yet if she didn’t cherish this chance but spent every day thinking about how to become more beautiful to win others’ praises, then she was ignoring her duty, and such life would be empty and have no value at all. Thinking of this, she suddenly came to realize: It does not matter whether my appearance is good or not, or how other people see me; what matters is that I can play my role well and fulfill the mission entrusted by the Creator in my short life. So, to pursue to know the Creator in these only dozens of years is the most valuable and meaningful life.
Later, Fang Jing read these words of God, “Those who seek to know God are able to set aside their desires, are willing to submit to God’s sovereignty and God’s arrangements; they try to be the kind of people who are submissive to God’s authority and satisfy God’s desire. Such people live in light, live in the midst of God’s blessings; they will surely be commended by God” (“God Himself, the Unique III”). Then she came to know that what she was seeking—outward beauty and others’ high regard and praises—is as transient as fleeting clouds. The most important thing she should seek is to submit to God’s sovereignty and know the Creator’s authority. Only when she obeys the Creator’s sovereignty and arrangements will she no longer worry about these external things, her figure and her appearance, but instead play her role well in a free and released way and live out the likeness of a new man to repay the Creator’s love for her.
Afterward, instead of being beset by anxiety, Fang Jing, spent every day happily with a joyful heart. Even though she could not walk as lightly as others on account of corpulence, she sincerely felt grateful to God for allowing her to come before the Creator and have the chance to know Him.
All glory to God!
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