Beauty and the Beads

I design and make jewelry. Not the fancy stuff, just beading, but it's a nice creative outlet for me. I went to a bead show yesterday and bought some beautiful red beads from a company called Beauty & the Beads. What a great name, especially since it brings to mind one of my favorite childhood stories, Beauty & the Beast.

While the two titles share a a similar "beginning" (beauty), their "ending" (beads vs beast) appears to be different ~ or is it?

In the story, the beast was not who he seemed to be. And the same is true with the beads. Anyone who has been beading for awhile knows how off-shore processing of natural stones has changed the face of finished beads. So unless you know your beads, you can think you are buying something naturally beautiful, when in fact, it has been enhanced or is a bona fide fake.

Stick with me on this one. I do have a point.

So back to my beautiful red beads. As gorgeous as they are, I know that underneath that beauty lies a "beast." That's because these beads are being sold as red coral, which is highly desirable and hard to come by. So hard to come by that the price and color of the beads I purchased are a dead give-away that underneath that red exterior lies something far, far different than natural red coral. Indeed, they most likely started out as common, plain white coral and have been intensely dyed and highly polished.

So what's my point? The point is that things are not always what they seem. We can hide behind an artificial facade of beauty, but is there really a beast hiding underneath it all? Or we can choose to deflect people from our true selves, which may be truly beautiful, by hiding behind a mask of the beast. Either way, we are falsely presenting ourselves to the world.

I want to be authentic. I want my heart/attitude to match my facial countenance. And I want that visage to be a pleasing reflection of the beauty of God within me. That's a beauty I can't attain on my own.

Lord, bless me with the beauty of your presence within me. May I be a pleasing and acceptable vessel for your love. May I overflow with that love and pour it out on others so that they may see and feel your beauty, too.