By DANNY MINTON

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all?”  The picture of the queen standing before the mirror each morning asking the question was the beginning subject of the Grimm’s brother’s fairy tale, “Little Snow White.” Each morning the “proud and arrogant” queen would summon her “Magic Mirror,” asking the same question, waiting for the anticipated answer, “You, my queen, are fairest of all.” Her outward looks were more important to her than the type of person she was inward.

I came across an article online promoting a product to make dying plants look alive. The product is a green spray used to spray on the dead brown spots of your plants. The results become a nice-looking green plant without the sightly dead spots. Some reviews mentioned how the spray helped completely dead plants look alive and beautiful. When the green begins to fade, spray some more, and the look returns. Thinking about it, I thought that’s great for outward appearances, but the plant is still dead underneath the cosmetics. 

My thoughts then went to all the anti-aging products advertised in the media. Try as I might, I can’t get away from the ads for creams to take away wrinkles and those that can make me look ten years younger. It is estimated that in today’s world, more than 72 billion dollars is spent on the anti-aging market. That amount will increase to close to 120 billion by 2030, all to look younger on the outside, while in reality, our bodies continue to age with time.

I have no qualms with people wanting to look more attractive on the outside. The problem comes when we spend so much time and effort looking good outwardly that we forget to look good on the inside. Jesus uses this type of symbolism when he speaks to the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23 about how they live their lives. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”

Matthew 23:25-26 (NASB) Paul explains to the Corinthians the difference between a showy outside and a life lived with the love of Christ from the inside out. “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NASB)

The change of who and what we are on the outside should become an extension of who we are inwardly. Jesus, Peter, and Paul all talk about how we need to groom our inner selves with spiritual attributes. When we accomplish this task outwardly, we become beautiful to each person we meet. In my view of people, physically attractive people become ugly when an inner self of ugliness toward others controls them. Below are two pictures. Study them and truthfully ask yourself which one is the most beautiful person.

If honest, you’d likely say the one on the bottom is the most beautiful. The man on the top was Joseph “John” Merrick, known in history as “the Elephant Man.” John’s disease took over his body, causing a grotesque-looking human to most people. In the picture, John is in his mid-twenties and will die at the age of 27. Beneath the looks of his diseased body, he was a sweet, loving man who only wanted to be normal, like everyone else.

The man on the bottom? That’s an artist’s rendition of Joseph Merrick’s appearance without the disease. Joseph looked like an animal to most people because they failed to see the beauty underneath the damaged body.

It’s okay to do things that make you look younger outwardly; however, spending the time looking beautiful on the inside is more important. That’s the part that people see when they get to know us. Oh, it costs a lot less too.

Danny Minton is a former Elder and minister at Southern Hills Church of Christ