Making Up For Jesus
Twitter: @Talktolia
“…Let’s always make sure that when people are attracted to us, it shouldn’t just be because of our “make-up” but also because of our “make-in”…”
As I queued up AGAIN behind some ladies at the Mac cosmetic store in the Bramalea City Centre shopping Mall in Brampton, Ontario November 21, 2012, I realized there will always be a queue unless the shop closed down permanently. I was out of foundation and went for my quarterly refill. This realization brought with it many ideas and I started thinking about the term “makeup”. What are women and men making up for? I asked myself. Are we really making up for defects on our bodies? Are we so totally disfigured that we have to continuously be applying stuff to hide imperfections?
Although these questions may seem rhetorical, I’ll start by admitting that I do apply foundation, powder and lip gloss myself. I draw a line on my eye brows and apply some eye shadow. Have I been telling God that what He created is not good enough? The guilt behind this thought made me start thinking deeply and looking for ways to play around this guilt … and try to make God understand why I make-up. Let’s see how “convincing” my thoughts are going to sound as I try to make my case to our Heavenly Father that making up is not necessarily to rebel against His perfect Handiwork.
Inner Beauty first
As a bride, on my traditional African wedding day, I wanted to make sure my hair-do was perfect, that my eyebrows were waxed, my feet shaved, and my make-up worth all that money I paid for it. I just had to look radiant. A new mother at the time, I was conscious of my weight as well, but happy my makeup was directing the focus to what mattered: my face – my eyes, lips, and of course my smile, which were all enhanced and beautiful.
On white wedding days in churches and civil locations across the world, brides customarily pay special attention to their looks. I am yet to find a bride who rushes to church without making sure her husband falls in love with her all over again. I am yet to see a woman with blemishes, breakout spots and placenta burns deliberately displaying her pride over her God given beauty in public places.
That being said, I am yet to find a man who would not love to hear others tell him, “your woman looks great!” Or a woman who would not be proud to hear others say “your man looks elegant”. I must confess if my man didn’t think I looked good enough for an outing, I wouldn’t feel comfortable stepping out of the house. Many women can relate to this.
While our make-up may be part of the package that draws people to us, we must also remember to always be a decent representation of who our Father in heaven made us to be. Unfortunately some makeup is not always pleasing to the eyes, and could sometimes leave people with frightful nightmares.
Let us therefore not be misled by compliments. We should remember that the essence of looking beautiful must not always centre around the opposite sex. 100% of our beauty must come from within the heart, if another 100 % must come from the outside. If we reduced the inner percentage in favour of the outer one, we would be nothing but empty, living, and beautiful representations of Vanity.
We must always remember the inner beauty is what matters most. Let’s always make sure that when people are attracted to us, it shouldn’t just be because of our “make-up” but also because of our “make-in”.
At this point I would like to plead with God to allow me do a little touch-up on what He has already made beautiful, as a way of dusting His artwork, adding radiance to His pottery and some elegance to His vessel of creativity. He tells us that we are the clay and He is the potter and we are the works of His “hands” (Isaiah 64:8). I know He won’t be pleased to see His handiwork neglected and shabby looking.
If I say I am His servant and I can’t look anything like the beauty He made me to be, then my maker won’t be properly represented. However I must be careful that at the end of the night when I take off my eye mascara, my blush and my liners He will still be happy with me for maintaining His temple beautifully.
Make-up for Kingdom Service
Like many other women, I haven’t added extra “boobs” to the two He gave me despite the effects of childbirth; I haven’t performed any cosmetic procedures to increase my “butt”; I also didn’t add some pads to my “bum” to make them bigger than what He gave me through my mama. I have had some scars along the way, some break-outs in my teenage years and after, some hair in many places, I’m still not the prettiest face that is out there in the modeling magazines but I sure know how to glorify God in everything that I am, reflecting His beauty with every natural “accessory” He used in building me.
Make-up as temporary as it is, will remain in demand for a lifetime but make-up users and artists must make sure they are making-up for service in the Kingdom of God and not making up to chase shadows like Emperor Ferdinand I of Naples who spent time chasing shadows and got himself the lifetime title of “Emperor Chasing Shadows”. Let’s not spend time standing in a cue at the cosmetician and miss the bridegroom like the foolish virgins in Matthew 25:10.
Here’s something to remember as we think about “nipping” and “tucking”, “cutting and pasting” anything extra to our bathing suits from this moment: “Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning”, (Luke 12:35).
Hope you can now find some peace in knowing that making-up the right way and for a decent purpose leaves us feeling good about ourselves inside, while enhancing our outward physical beauty. But the equation must be balanced: 100% inside and 100% outside adds up to demonstrate our readiness for an unknown wedding every second of everyday. Hang these watchwords to your purses as you catwalk down the streets of life.
LIA
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Irine Lum Asanji (aka LIA) is a freelance writer and journalist based in Brampton, Canada. Born and raised in Cameroon the daughter and sister of Pastors, LIA immigrated to Canada in 2006. She holds an undergraduate degree in Journalism (University of Buea, Cameroon) and a postgraduate degree in Visual Anthropology (University of Tromso, Norway). She has worked as a journalist and Communication Officer with the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC). LIA recently designed and launched a website talktolia.com geared towards Marriage and Family enrichment services, which serves as her ministry and her private business. She is an employee with Broan-Nutone Canada and became born-again in 2011 making her more evangelistic in her approach to writing. She speaks English, French, German and Norwegian. She is a mother of two and enjoys singing, cooking, dancing and a good laugh. She writes under her name and her pen name LIA which also means Lord Is Able.
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