Actress Uma Thurman recently appeared at a premier for her new miniseries, but when she walked into the room, people didn't recognize her. Apparently, she had some serious plastic surgery done to her, so much so that people wondered, "Why?" It was the same response Renee Zellweger drew when she appeared before an audience. Again, the same question arose, "Why?" Why would these glamorous Hollywood stars who would seem to be the envy of so many women, opt to have plastic surgery to change their essential appearance?
Proverbs 31:30 provides the answer, "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Beauty is vain because it is fleeting. It doesn't last, at least not the beauty of the world. If James is right, that out lives our a vanishing mist, then physical beauty is a small part of that most. Once these actresses hit their 30s and 40s, suddenly a wrinkle here or crows feet there or sun/age spot here shows up, and the person is devastated. For the first time, their mortality begins to show. So how does one stop mortality? One covers it up. But the cover up is often worse than the original, and once vanity consumes a person, they cannot see that their perception of beauty is a warped disfigurement of the beauty of the orignal (e.g. the many iterations of Michael Jackson).
It's sad really. These are beautiful actresses bound to the world's standard of youthful beauty. No matter how many chin tucks, botox treatments, and hair extensions one applies, youthful beauty cannot be attained. It will always appear to be a cheap imitation, a wanna-be, a caricature of the old beautiful self.
But that's the problem, isn't it? God made us beautiful in each life stage. We are made in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). We are made to enjoy Him and to delight in how He made us to be (Psalm 8) from beginning (Psalm 139) to end (Ecclesiastes). Man's attempts to undo God's handiwork always leads to a frankenstein-ish creation, a funny picture if it wasn't so tragic.
When we worship created things (our own beauty) rather than the Creator (Rom 1), we are never truly happy. We are always longing to improve on what we do not like. And I am afraid as medical technology improves and lotions and creams and plastic surgery abound, we will see too many beautiful people turned quite un-beautiful. Why Uma? Why Renee?
Proverbs 31:30 provides the answer, "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Beauty is vain because it is fleeting. It doesn't last, at least not the beauty of the world. If James is right, that out lives our a vanishing mist, then physical beauty is a small part of that most. Once these actresses hit their 30s and 40s, suddenly a wrinkle here or crows feet there or sun/age spot here shows up, and the person is devastated. For the first time, their mortality begins to show. So how does one stop mortality? One covers it up. But the cover up is often worse than the original, and once vanity consumes a person, they cannot see that their perception of beauty is a warped disfigurement of the beauty of the orignal (e.g. the many iterations of Michael Jackson).
It's sad really. These are beautiful actresses bound to the world's standard of youthful beauty. No matter how many chin tucks, botox treatments, and hair extensions one applies, youthful beauty cannot be attained. It will always appear to be a cheap imitation, a wanna-be, a caricature of the old beautiful self.
But that's the problem, isn't it? God made us beautiful in each life stage. We are made in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). We are made to enjoy Him and to delight in how He made us to be (Psalm 8) from beginning (Psalm 139) to end (Ecclesiastes). Man's attempts to undo God's handiwork always leads to a frankenstein-ish creation, a funny picture if it wasn't so tragic.
When we worship created things (our own beauty) rather than the Creator (Rom 1), we are never truly happy. We are always longing to improve on what we do not like. And I am afraid as medical technology improves and lotions and creams and plastic surgery abound, we will see too many beautiful people turned quite un-beautiful. Why Uma? Why Renee?