Spiritual Sundays - Nothing Beautiful

For how long those posters were hanging on one side of the walls in our medical clinic, no one knew not unless they had worked in the jail for a long time.


There were 4 columns of men’s and women’s faces, horizontally and vertically. They were the “before and after drug use” kind of photos. And the pictures told it all, they were not pretty!


Two or three years of drug use made these faces looked so old! They were in their 20’s or 30’s and they looked like twice, even thrice their ages already. Teeth were decayed, some receded to their gum lines. Their hair falling off and brittle, compared to what was once thick and shiny hair with a nice style. Clear facial skin was replaced with overly dry condition, filled with rashes or acne all over. The once over-all well-kept appearance looked shabby and unkempt.


These people were trapped in the web of habitual substances abuse. Others made fun of them. They were ridiculed, outcast, perhaps, rejected. They would find their “quick-fix” by increasing the amount of drugs they used to achieve that “peace and elation” feelings they were hoping for. But unfortunately, their mental condition also began to deteriorate at the passing of times.


People are often quick to judge others just by seeing their faces or over-all appearances. They think that they know that person’s character just by merely looking at them from the outside. If they appear handsome or beautiful, they associate it with them being “good kind of people”. Or vice versa.


Long time ago, though He didn’t use drugs and “sinless”, there was a humble Servant who came here but he was judged, laughed at and ridiculed. He did not appear majestic so why would one believe that He was the “Son of God” even? He was only a carpenter, born in a manger, so how could He be the “King of all Kings?”


The prophet Isaiah described Jesus this way [Isaiah 53:1-6]:


1- “Who has believed our message? To whom will the Lord reveal his saving power?

2- “My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender, green shoot, sprouting from a root in dry and sterile ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.

3- “He was despised and rejected - a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised, and we did not care.”

4- “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins!

5- “But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed!

6- “All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of all.


Be careful not to lose that opportunity of becoming “friends” with others just because your opinions have formed pertaining to their physical appearances.


It may be the “best friendship” you can ever find in your lifetime!

For more of encouraging posts, please visit Spiritual Sundays, hosted by sisters Charlotte and Ginger.