Graffiti artists have been on the loose in The Magic City (why Birmingham is called that I will never know; we have the tenth highest crime rate in America, the seventh highest murder rate, and we’re located in a state where 1 in 6 people live in poverty).  They have been leaving their mark across bridges, on the sides of buildings and on rooftops.  We’ve tried to stop them, but they are adamant about getting their message across.  Three little words, but one giant impact.  ”You are beautiful.”

I know, I know, I had you going.  You were expecting something foul and malicious and inappropriate.  But no!  It appears that not all graffiti in Birmingham is gang-related.  These hope-givers are spreading joy throughout Birmingham in the simplest way they know how: through their words. 

It’s such a simple concept, the idea of being beautiful.  And yet for so many people, both male and female, it is so hard to accept.  We have a tendency to find even the smallest flaws and dwell on them with our every waking breath.  We never see ourselves as good enough, or pretty enough, or thin enough, or FLAWLESS enough.  But what does flawless really mean?  How can one obtain flawlessness?  I remember when I was younger there was a period of time (and by that I mean like a week or two) when everyone was talking about how Halle Berry had been labeled the most beautiful woman in the world.  She had no sun damage, no acne, no love handles, no wrinkles, no worldly imperfections.  She was considered “flawless.”  And I remember thinking to myself how much I wished that could be me one day.  That people would look at me and say “wow, what a flawless, beautiful woman.”  As little girls we get our ideas of beauty from Disney princesses and Barbie dolls, and let me tell you, I believe that 100% of women would be better off not having either of those two things in their lives when they’re little.  Whose hair ACTUALLY stays perfectly in place while they’re flying on a magic carpet ride?  Hmm?  And whose makeup is still perfect after being asleep for 100 years?  And who stays thin as a toothpick after eating all those fattening dishes that Mrs. Potts prepares?  No one.  At a very early age we develop these ideas of what beauty should be, and then we spend our whole lives disappointing ourselves because we can never measure up, and because we can never figure out what we’re doing wrong in our quest for beauty.

I can write this because I’ve been there.  In a way I still am, but not in a crippling sort of way anymore.  I’ve come to realize what the word beauty really means, and why it had no meaning before now.  Before now, I wanted to be beautiful in the eyes of the world.  I was doing everything I could to BECOME beautiful.  And then I discovered something.  All this time, all the years of my life that I had been trying so hard to find someone who thought I was beautiful, I hadn’t realized that someone already did.  Not just any someone, but the only One who matters.  Someone who went through great pain and suffering just so He could call my flawless, and mean it.  Someone who calls me beautiful.

I was reading the book “Captivating” by John and Stasi Eldredge when I had this epiphany, if you want to call it that.  They were talking about the Creation, and how every little thing that was created was more amazing than that before it.  “A cricket is amazing, but it cannot compare to a wild horse,” they say.  God created the sky, the water, the land, vegetation, wildlife… and then something amazing, something astonishing and spectacular.  He created man, a being made in His own image.  But wait, God isn’t done yet.  Out of Adam – out of man – he creates Eve.  Woman.  “She is the crescendo, the final, astonishing work of God.  Woman.  In one last flourish creation comes to a finish not with Adam, but with EVE.  She is the Master’s finishing touch.  …Eve is BREATHTAKING.  Given the way creation unfolds, how it builds to ever higher and higher works of art, can there be any doubt that Eve is the crown of creation?  Not an afterthought.  Not a nice addition like an ornament on a tree.  She is God’s final touch, his pièce de résistance.  She fills a place in the world nothing and no one else can fill.”

And now I’ll explain to you why this was so significant and heart changing for me.  If you know me even a little, you know that there are few things in this world that bring me greater joy than the sky.  I could literally sit in a hammock for hours and just stare at the clouds/stars/sunrise/sunset/whatever.  It intoxicates me.  It enthralls me, puts me in a trance.  It’s spectacular.  It’s breathtaking.  Words can’t describe it.  And when you go back to the creation story, it was only second on the list.  God created light, and then He created the sky.  It’s practically at the bottom of the totem pole.  It is the least spectacular in all of creation.  The least!  In all its glory, all its beauty and all its wonder, it is the least.  And what is at the top, the greatest of all creation?  I AM.  I am the most beautiful of everything that God created.  I am His pride and joy, His masterpiece.  I am infinitely more beautiful than the sky.  Do you understand that?  Can you comprehend it?  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  I am more beautiful than the one thing I’ve always been captivated by.  I am at the top of the totem pole.  I AM BEAUTIFUL.

I’m going to make myself extremely vulnerable for a moment in order to get my point across, and to connect with those of you who may still be doubting your worth and your beauty.  I don’t talk about this with anyone; there are only 2 people in this world who know just how greatly it hurts me.  But I have struggled all my life with terrible skin, a.k.a. the ever-dreaded acne word.  If you haven’t noticed it, it’s cuz the makeup hides it, or I photoshopped it out.  It has been the single greatest hindrance in feeling confident in myself outwardly.  It’s affected me for years, in ways that no one could understand.  There were days of my life where I would feel less ugly, but never – not once in all my life – had I ever truly felt beautiful.  I see girls who have porcelain skin 99% of the time, and then they get one little zit and they act like their life is ending.  Oh what I would give for that to be me lol.  I’ve tried every medicine, face wash and antibiotic known to man, with no luck.  I’ve drastically changed my lifestyle (eating healthy, working out 3-5 times a week, etc.) for this very reason, but still no change.  I wouldn’t go places after taking my makeup off.  I wouldn’t let guys that I dated touch my face, ever.  I wouldn’t go swimming with friends in the summer because I didn’t want my makeup to wash off.  I was so self-conscious, 24/7, 365 days a year.  This might all be sounding a little dramatic to you, but for me, this was life.  It’s what I was used to, it was something that constantly held me back.  I’m not saying it doesn’t anymore; no girl wants to feel unattractive.  But now I’m starting to see that the word beauty as I’ve always known it is not at all the type of beauty I want to be striving for.  My brother is one of the two people who I said knows this about me, and here was his response when I wrote to him about it:  “Another thing that is important to understand is that you are not your body.  Your body is a tool through which you interact with this life.  As C.S. Lewis said, you don’t HAVE a soul, you ARE a soul.  You have a body.  I know how difficult having acne was for me and I can only imagine, being female, how much harder it must be for you but know that you were given the body you have for a reason.  It has, from birth, shaped who you are becoming and who you are becoming is who God wants you to be!  Here’s the take-away from this: YOUR BODY IS NOT WHAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL.  It’s not who you are.  It’s your avatar.  Literally.  That’s it.  A woman’s heart makes her beautiful, and you have a beautiful heart.”

So in closing, I know first-hand that the idea of letting go of the world’s idea of beauty is easier said than done.  The path to acceptance of yourself is long and hard, with many hills and potholes along the way.  But the destination is so, so beautiful.  Once you can stop caring about what the world thinks of you and how the world sees you, you are free to become exactly who you are meant to be.  You are free to be you.  And you, my friend, whether you are male or female, and whether you realize it yet or not, you are truly, magnificently, breathtakingly beautiful.

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