Yesterday, while I was in a middle school, I walked past a table filled with mittens and gloves. I mean filled. There must have been a hundred pairs and then another hundred singles. We are having fifty degree days now in New England so I am thinking most of those gloves will not be missed until next fall. By then the owner’s hands will have gotten bigger so new ones will be the order of the day.
When I was little and had lost several pairs of mittens my mother finally put a string on them that ran through the sleeves of my coat. I stopped losing them. It was a bit dorky but it worked. Not every thing that is practical can be cool. Functionality trumps beauty over and over.
What is wonderful is when you have a combination of both. It’s great to get a beautiful wife who can also cook a great meal and also bring home a paycheck. I know. I know. That was a crude thing to say. How about this for an illustration? A beautiful car can also get thirty miles to the gallon and get you safely to your destination. That most likely works better as an illustration.
Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder I believe God thinks each of us is beautiful. How grand it would be if we would allow ourselves to be functional for Him. In Ephesians 2 we are told God has a work for us to do. If we cooperate with Him we are beautiful and functional.
There were some beautiful gloves on that table at the middle school. Alas, they were not being very functional. They were lost.
Written by Roger Bothwell on March 12, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org