Good Morning Beautiful!
You may roll out of bed thinking you’d like to give yourself a mirror high-five: like this guy:
But then you remember…I don’t get to do that today. At first, you’re happy because this means you can roll back over and go to sleep for another 15 minutes that you would usually use to get ready. But by the time you get up and pick up that tube of mascara you think…."oh crap. Do I really have to do this?” But you do, and you try to “paint” your face the best you can and rush out the door to class.Today you may be tempted to hide behind a tree or sit in the back row and avoid eye contact with anyone, afraid that their reaction may be..”yikes!” But I can guarantee you, that the world will not stop moving because you’ve stopped using a mirror for a few hours. Your friends will still talk with you, you will still participate in class discussions, and you will still end the day with a cross in ashes upon your forehead marking this day as a day when you remember “you are dust and to dust you will return.”
But with these ashes today comes a promise, a promise that despite your feeling of vulnerability, you are about to learn something very, very special about your dignity and worth--that with this sacrifice will come a wonderful reward. God says,
“Why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you?” ~Mt. 6:25.A lily of the field doesn’t have to try to be beautiful, it is in it’s nature. And yet God says, even the kings of the earth who are clothed in the most beautiful garments and bedazzled with sparkling jewels are not clothed like one lily who is created by God in all of its natural beauty. There is a lily inside of you. It is time to begin to watch it bloom.
Do you trust God to make you beautiful today despite your efforts? Are you willing to make a temporary sacrifice for the possibility of discovering the deep divides between you and God and let Him restore them?
Dear Lord, we pray that today you give us the grace to see your face, though we can’t see our own. Give us the patience and the courage necessary to begin on this journey towards a closer relationship with you, and speak to our hearts the message of your Love. I give this day to you.
p.s. I want to see how you’ve covered/repainted your mirror! Send a picture to deen1787@stthomas.edu. Here’s what I did:
