What is the difference between a beauty mark and a mole?
Absolutely nothing.
Except, of course, perspective.
Both are visible and share the same pigment. But depending on placement, we view them either as something to be removed or something that adds beauty and personality to a face.
There are, obviously, times when a mole needs to be removed – when it proves to be cancerous or is constantly bumped and prone to bleeding. These need to be dealt with and removed for the person’s health and well-being.
God continues to change my vision and perspective. This includes looking at the moles in my heart and life with different eyes.
He has shown me the things that need attention, removal even. Those things that prove to be a cancer to my soul – old ways of thinking (perfectionism, selfishness and pride); my mind getting in the way of my heart. Things that needed extraction to save my spiritual life and health.
But there are other spots on me that I would have thought needed removal simply because I didn’t like how they looked at first glance – idiosyncrasies, creative tendencies, overactive imagination, weaknesses.
Jesus is showing me that it’s those moles that are actually hand-crafted by Him as beauty marks – defining characteristics that He wants to use. Things that weren’t meant to be hidden or covered but to leave exposed to the world for its benefit as well as mine.
What are your beauty marks? What moles have you been hiding that are actually something Jesus wants to use in the lives others? Personality traits, spiritual gifts, different ways of thinking? Even weaknesses? They might even be marks that you’re not completely comfortable with yourself; things that up to this point you wished would be removed because you didn’t fully understand them.
Jesus understands them. Jesus wants to use them to express their beauty and His glory through them. They might be little, they might be big, but they have a purpose in this world. They are meant to be part of the defining of you in God’s scheme of things.
Your beauty marks will look different from mine, and mine will look different from his, hers and theirs. They were personalized just for you, so don’t pine away wishing they looked like someone else’s. They are yours and yours alone, made (or allowed) for a very personal and unique purpose.
Psalm 139:13-14 – For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 – Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
