Grateful for Charlie
One of the bright spots in my life is my son Charlie. I have never spoken to him about Fat people or judging others by their appearance, but I can remember two instances when he made me very proud.
1 - Once I was picking him up from his after school program. As I walked in I noticed him talking to a very Fat girl next to the water cooler. She was obese with bright red cheeks and a cheery disposition. He saw me, but proceeded to talk to her for a few more seconds. As we walked out the door he said, “Mommy, did you see that girl I was talking to?” I said, “Yes.” Then he said, “She’s really nice and very interesting...she likes the same t.v. show as me and reads the same books.” He didn’t comment about her weight or appearance. I smiled inside thanking God!
2 - Charlie has three stuffed animals he still sleeps with. (He will kill me when he reads this). Two of them are high quality, while the other one was bought for $5 at Kohl’s. I know this to be true because when I threw them in the washer, two of them came out looking the same, while the cheap one looked very deformed and hideous looking. Like something the cat dragged in. It was so hideous to me that I secretly wanted to throw it away, but Charlie still loves it and treats it as precious in his eyes. In fact, sometimes he prefers it to the other two. To be honest, I cant bare to look at it. This is how God is. The ones that man has cast aside and can’t bear to look at are the ones He treasures most!
2 Chronicles 16:9 (NLT)
The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
Presumptuous Sins
Presumptuous Sins are when we ASSUME that what we are doing is okay, but in the sight of God, it’s not okay.
When you look at a Fat person with disgust thinking you are “better” than they are, you are like the Pharisee in the synagogue who said, “Thank you God that I am not like other men…” Jesus said, “for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14)
When you look at a Fat person and have disdain in your heart, you are rejecting God’s creation.
When you see a Fat person and make an insensitive comment or suggestion as if your gesture makes you a benefactor to Fat people, you are NOT helping, but only marking yourself as an adversary of Fat people.
I can’t tell you how many people I come across who have an aversion to Fat people. To me, they are some of the most insensitive people on the planet, because their mouths are nonstop against Fat people. They don’t have compassion towards people who struggle with their weight, because frankly, they are ignorant since they never struggled themselves!
And honestly, I hesitate going to Filipino parties for this reason. Filipinos are obsessed with weight and appearances. Every time I get around any of them they comment on my size: whether I gained weight or lost weight. Aren’t there more important things to focus on than our size and weight? I’m sure I am not alone with these thoughts. If you care for someone who is Fat, then just encourage them and love them regardless of their size and STOP bringing up their weight as if it defines them as a human being! Plus it’s none of your business. So before you attempt to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye, consider the plank in yours!
Start showing some empathy and compassion towards the heavy and less attractive, otherwise God will not be pleased with your worship. Speaking of worship, I happened to glance at the television screen while I was at American Ranch in Artesia one day. I couldn’t help but notice a popular variety show airing. The people in the audience had their hands up and were clapping as if they were worshipping God in a church service; except they weren’t at church. They were watching their idols on stage performing. Talk about worshipping man’s beauty and appearance.
Whatever happened to God getting all the glory instead of man?
Watch yourself the next time you come across a beautiful, thin person. Do you gawk and stare in awe of their beauty? Then notice how you respond to a less attractive, ordinary person. They don’t catch your eye, so you couldn’t care less about their presence. You didn’t meet anyone special, but in the eyes of Jesus you did; you just didn’t see it because you were so caught up in what you see with your eyes.
Whatever happened to God getting all the glory instead of man?
Watch yourself the next time you come across a beautiful, thin person. Do you gawk and stare in awe of their beauty? Then notice how you respond to a less attractive, ordinary person. They don’t catch your eye, so you couldn’t care less about their presence. You didn’t meet anyone special, but in the eyes of Jesus you did; you just didn’t see it because you were so caught up in what you see with your eyes.
Psalm 19:12-14
Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
If you are part of the 10% of the population who doesn’t denigrate Fat people, I applaud you. However, there are more sins to list around this topic.
If you covet being thin and beautiful more than anything, you are in error.
If you are obsessed with your weight and every carb gram you inhale, you are not pleasing God.
If you worship the thin and beautiful, God is not only angry at you, but you are inviting His wrath into your life.
If every thought of every day is spent on worrying about how you look, you are right where the devil wants you and working against God.
If you make yourself miserable or hate yourself for not being beautiful and/or thin, you are grieving God, because He made you and loves you the way you are even though the world is not as accepting of you.
If you won’t allow yourself to have true peace and joy because of the inner voices telling you that you have to “be this or that to be truly happy,” then the inner voices are winning the battle. God has no part of those negative messages. He only wants to whisper encouraging and loving messages to you daily.
If you are more concerned about your looks, weight, beauty, or anti-aging than your personal walk with Jesus Christ, you are not abiding in Him.
Whether we are Fat or Thin, our constant preoccupation with this status is flat out IDOLATRY. It is taking us away from what God’s wants for us to focus on and work on. It’s easy to get swept up in our looks and appearances, but God looks into our hearts not our outward appearance.
When we are able to break free from this bondage:
We are finally able to receive the Love that God intended for us to have in Christ Jesus
We are able to SEE others the way God sees them
We are able to extend that Love to others without prejudice or judgment
We are able to experience true Joy that comes from loving and accepting others
Galatians 6:8-10
Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Romans 13:14
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
Our Lord was not loved or worshipped for His looks or beauty. In fact, this is why the Jews did not easily accept him as the Messiah.
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| Jesus depicted as handsome |
The picture above is not a true depiction of Jesus in the Bible.
God had the good sense to bring Him into this earth with ordinary, substandard looks, to test the hearts of man to look beyond the physical. He wants us to to worship God with our spirits rather than the flesh; using our hearts and minds instead of our eyes.
As I close this highly personal and emotional article, I would like to leave you with an excerpt from Matthew Henry’s Commentary about Jesus in hopes you will think twice before you think lowly towards a Fat or less attractive person or think too highly towards a thin and beautiful person.
“The contempt they put upon the person of Christ because of the meanness of his appearance, this seems to come in as a reason why they rejected his doctrine, because they were prejudiced against his person. When he was on earth many that heard him preach, and could not but approve of what they heard, would not give it any regard or entertainment, because it came from one that made so small a figure and had no external advantages to recommend him...The low condition he submitted to, and how he abased and emptied himself. The entry he made into the world, and the character he wore in it, were no way agreeable to the ideas which the Jews had formed of the Messiah and their expectations concerning him, but quite the reverse.
It was expected that he should have some uncommon beauty in his face and person, which should charm the eye, attract the heart, and raise the expectations of all that saw him. But there was nothing of this kind in him; not that he was in the least deformed or misshapen, but he had no form nor comeliness, nothing extraordinary, which one might have thought to meet with in the countenance of an incarnate deity. Those who saw him could not see that there was any beauty in him that they should desire him, nothing in him more than in another beloved...
But our Lord Jesus had nothing of that to recommend him. Or it may refer not so much to his person as to the manner of his appearing in the world, which had nothing in it of sensible glory. His gospel is preached, not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but with all plainness, agreeable to the subject. It was expected that he should live a pleasant life, and have a full enjoyment of all the delights of the sons and daughters of men, which would have invited all sorts to him; but, on the contrary, he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. It was not only his last scene that was tragical, but his whole life was so, not only mean, but miserable…”
-- Matthew Henry
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