UGLYBEAUTIFUL

I was up thinking about a conversation my brother and I had today about first impressions. Don't be fooled by first impressions. First impressions can be lasting but they are also just impressions. Impressions are ideas, feelings, or opinions about something or someone, especially if formed without conscious thoughts or on the basis of little evidence. Someone to your natural eye may be so ugly; yet their beautiful. A ripe banana will make your banana nut bread taste bitter but a ugly ripened one will make it moist and sweet.

A friend once told me that even a devil looks good in a blue dress; but if you stay around that person long enough you will find out who they really are. This is a true statement but what my brother was pointing out is that the same emphasis can be applied to something ugly and thrown away; if you add some love and value to the ugly thing; ugly can now become beautiful. My brothers statement is a little more consequential. My brother Teto made a remarkable inference as I was stating what this friend had said. He said "in the same way that you can uncover something and discover how ugly it is; you can also cover that something or someone and make it beautiful. Like a before and after when a person goes to a makeup artist or an old dirty coin you found and cleaned up that is now valued at thousands of dollars. My brother blended the words ugly and beautiful and made them the dynamic duo. Pretty and ugly, good and evil, heaven and hell. Kind of what Jesus Christ did when he died on the cross for our sins. As a result of this we have been given grace and mercy. AND we are also covered by his blood daily. Maybe we could not be so critical and judgmental and extend to each other a little more grace and mercy. I am certain God sees the UGLYBEAUTIFUL in us all; yet he still loves each and everyone of us. I hope you will extend that same grace to others and yourself today.