The Uglies!

They swarmed around him. Everywhere he went, they were there! The lame, the blind, the deaf, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, ....all the refuse of society, they seemed to surround him. And he seemed more comfortable with them than the church goers. He touched them. The church goers criticized him.

He spoke against the church goers. Said they had a religion that was empty. .....as he put it....full of dead men's bones. No heart, no soul. That made them mad! They plotted to kill him! Jesus, this is Jesus! This is the Son of God we're talking about. He accepted everyone as they were,....and loved them....got nailed for it. In fact, at points...the Word says he wept over them. Imagine, weeping over the refuse of society. He did it!

It amazes me how religion and faith get confused sometimes. You'd think they go together. They mix like oil and water most of the time. Especially when we talk about the Uglies! You know the uglies, all those people that don't measure up to our spiritual standards....hey, let's go further than that....even those people that don't "smell"acceptable. We look at them and immediately think of them as "lesser than".........I have, I know. It's the hierarchy of the "haves" and the "have nots".

I have said, "Amen" when the preacher has been at the zenith of his point! Sounded righteous too! Others have done the same. Just sounding righteous. Nothing wrong with saying Amen. Everything wrong with saying Amen when it's for show! I have been guilty of show. You know, sometimes the word spoken just doesn't move me. A reflection on my heart, I know, but it doesn't. I think I'm not listening or caring or something. I need Him to touch me, to take me in to that crowd of the uglies. I am an ugly.

He gave his life for me. When the world sees me as ugly....he doesn't. When I can't go to anyone else...He takes me as I am. Ugly as I am...and loves me anyway. Wow! How can that be?! In Him, I don't have to measure up to other's standards. I just need to look to His. His standards are so much more inviting. If I fall, He is there to pick me up. He never rejects me, never lets me go. When I totally blow it, He doesn't walk away....just says He hasn't forgotten His plan for my life.

I am an Ugly...and He loves me anyway. I haven't known a love like that. I don't deserve a love like that. But it's mine and I'm glad. How could the beautiful embrace the ugly. It's a God Thing....and only that. His embrace around my ugly makes me beautiful...and that pushes me to go embrace others who think they're ugly.

Only God, a loving God, can make the ugly beautiful. He does!