ONE UGLY FROG!

Beautiful people…You can see them everywhere and anywhere! They are displayed on Billboards, television, movies, magazines and in department stores. Beautiful people… physical attraction has been made that which draws our attention to other people and that which qualifies those same people for an elevated social status in the world in which we live.

Scientific research has proven that beautiful people receive more attention, favor, promotion, and are treated with higher regard than those who are not so privileged. What about the short; the tall; the overweight; the acne scarred teenager; the ugly; the handicapped; the cripple; the aids patient; the cancer victim; the drunk; the abused; and so on?

This afternoon, I was “deadheading” the really neat (pink…my wife chose the color) rose bushes in our front yard. While sitting on an upside down bucket, cutting the old faded roses off, something slimy moved up against my foot. When I looked down, I saw a really ugly, deformed, hump-backed toad sitting there next to me. He was looking me right in the eye. I almost expected him to say something, or to move or at least hop away. I asked him to stay for a moment while I went and got my camera to prove I wasn’t imagining things. He is pictured on this post so you can see for yourself!

The Bible says that “all men have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 In God’s eyes we must look pretty ugly. Isaiah describes our condition in these words… “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away." NLT One translation interprets the “filthy rags” as menstrual cloths.

That description tells the truth about the ugliness of our sin against God. However in His mercy and love, He still reaches out to the ugly and the sin infected. His Word declares “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” Jeremiah 31:3 NLT

No matter how ugly, broken, bruised, crushed, poor, depressed or demonic we are, He still draws us to Himself. Sin infected as we are, He sent His Son to die and His Spirit to pursue us and to draw us back again to Himself! “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Romans 5:8 Thank God for His Love right now! He never gave up on you and I, no matter how unattractive we were. He saw us through the eyes of His love!

In the same manner, God expects us to reach out to the ugly people in our own circle of influence. First of all, there are those who are deluded into believing that they are the beautiful people and don’t realize their need for a Savior. Jesus addressed the beautiful people of His day in this manner. “… you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.” Matthew 23:27

We just can’t ignore these people and let them die and go to hell. We need to be filled with the same Spirit that caused Jesus to weep over the lost souls of Jerusalem as He cried “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God’s news! How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me.” Matthew 23:37 Even though they were ugly, murderous villains, Jesus still wanted to gather them to Himself. Ugliness doesn’t scare God! Be compassionate, and reach out to these too. Don‘t treat the beautiful people as leprous and beyond hope. There was a time when it seemed that I was also beyond hope!

Remember when you were ugly? Of course, now you recognize that you are a “treasure” and “the apple of God’s eye” and enjoy fellowship with Him. Do you remember when you sat all alone and on the inside you were crying out (Consciously or subconsciously) for someone to recognize the hurt, the pain and the emptiness. Remember how God came along side and into your life and revolutionized your ugliness. Listen very carefully here….

God “comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.” 2 Corinthians 1:4 TM

There are ugly people all around you right now. Who is waiting for a touch from our Heavenly Father though you, because you already have personally experienced His comfort in your life? Can you take a single moment and peer through the ugliness and find some sense of beauty in their miserable lives? Do you have time, or will you make time, to reach out and get involved in an ugly person’s life? Pray and ask the Holy Spirit right now. Someone’s ugliness is crying out in desperation for your touch!

Through your life and His Spirit within you, God desires to “give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair.” Isaiah 61:3

The longer I looked at the frog, and got beyond the ugly humps on his back, the more beautiful he became. I saw his brilliant green colors begin to dance before my eyes, and then there were his eyes….

There is true beauty waiting to be discovered behind every ugliness in someone’s life!