Monday Moment: The Makeup Tin

I always put on makeup at home.

I think I look boring without it.

-Celine Dion

Makeup is a big deal in Texas. Talk to any girl south of the Red River and I'd be willing to bet you that 8 out of 10 will admit to rarely leaving the house without makeup. Although we share a teeny bit of border with the natural state, little of that has caught on here. For the most part, we like our eye shadow heavy and our hair done.

I got my makeup habit from my mother. In 28 years I have never seen her enter a public place - even for a moment - without her makeup. She wouldn't dare. Me? I bend, stretch, and dance around the habit often. I feel rebellious when I don't wear foundation - or mascara - to work. I'm smug when I slide into church without lipliner. And I try never to wear makeup to Wal-Mart. The stores have gotten so trashy and uncomfortable down here that it doesn't seem worth it, you know?

Ah, makeup. As I reached for my Dandelion blush this weekend, I began to think about my relationship with makeup. About how, as a teenager, I would carefully "put on my face", hoping someone would spot me in a crowd and say, "You. I want you." About how, as a young adult, I spent so much time and money chasing after beauty in a bottle. Or a blush. About how, in this past week, I depended on this concealer or that lipstick to make me presentable. Acceptable. And... admit it... beautiful. We buy and wear makeup (and clothes and hairstyles and nail polish and perfume) because we need to feel beautiful. If only for a few hours. We need someone to think we're beautiful. To take hold our our hand and say, I know you. You are mine. You are beautiful.

But it's odd how we let life change our perceptions of ourselves. Just as a new lipstick can boost us, other circumstances can crush us. We gain weight... we don't feel pretty. We get older... we don't feel beautiful. We lose a man's attention or affection... we feel undesirable. And as the pounds creep on, the wrinkles etch and splinter, and kisses get shorter and fewer, it hurts. We hurt. We ache. We crawl to that place inside ourselves and whimper, but I'm still me! I still need your love!

I don't know your makeup habits. I don't know what your marital status is, but really, I don't think any of it matters. Some of us have found someone who adores us. Others of us... whether married or single... are still waiting for that someone. Hoping. But all of us... whether we realized it this morning or not... are already loved. We are already chosen. Known. Summoned.

Put it this way. Your search... your quest for acceptance, for affirmation, for love... your search is over. It ends at feet of Jesus. Pack up your makeup, friend. You are already loved. You are already chosen. You are known. You are being summoned. Makeup or no makeup. Smooth or wrinkled. Thin or chubby. Kissed or not kissed. You have Someone's attention. Before you were born - just as you are - you had His attention. And you've had it ... and will have it... all along.

I created you.... I formed you.
Fear not, for I have redeemed you.
I have summoned you by name;
you are mine.
-Isaiah 43:1

Monday Moment is a little devotional to help kick start your week. Hope to see you again next Monday!