I have a theory that goes something like this. When you’re in your twenties, pretty much the first thing you look for in the opposite sex is looks. Is he hot? Is she fine? I hear the talk about how a girl wants some rugged, handsome man to come sweep her off her feet and how a guy really wants the supermodel to go out with him.

When a girl says she wants to be persued, what she really means is that she wants a very specific person or type of person to do the persuing. All others need not apply. Guys for the most part only pursue the ones they consider very appealing and attractive.

I don’t think this applies to every single twentysomething out there, but I’d safely bet it applies to 95+% of the singles ages 20-29 out there.

When you get closer to my age, your thinking changes. Hopefully. You start to see beauty as not so much what the person looks like, but how he or she lives. Not so much cosmetics, but godly character make a woman beautiful and a man handsome. How they treat others and show compassion to the least of these makes them attractive. They aren’t nearly as concerned about being fashinable as about being faithful  and obedient.

Ultimately, the most beautiful part about any person is Jesus and the more He shines through that person, the more beautiful that person becomes. Apart from Jesus, all of us are dressed in filthy rags and stained with sin and are ugly messes. But Jesus loving us makes us beautiful again. The more you surrender yourself to Christ and lay down your life for Him, the more He shows in and through you. And there is nothing more attractive than that, in my opinion.

Jesus, make us more like You daily. Take our broken lives and make them whole, take the ashes of our messed-up world and make them into a beauty that will dazzle the world around us.

Amen.