I’m so thankful to have grown up with the certainty of my parents’ love, but with the same certainty, I also grew up believing I was an ugly duckling. My ugly belief was proven when, as a high school senior, I spent a day with my two beautiful friends in the Indy 500 Snake Pit. In the early 80’s the racetrack’s center field was famous for the debauchery that raged during drivers’ practice days. Because I hadn’t yet given my life to Jesus, my friends and I wanted to see what “innocent trouble” we could find there.
The three of us were singing, drinking, and mocking the stumbling Snake-Pit drunks–until one of them stumbled toward us. Though he could barely walk, his eyes were focused as he approached. Focused, that is, on my two friends. He pointed at me and asked my friends, “What are two beauties doing with a dog-face like her?”
My friends gave him an earful and tried to comfort me with, “He’s so drunk he can’t see straight.” Externally, I laughed with them, but internally, that drunk’s words confirmed my lifelong belief. I was an ugly duckling.
Fast Forward Two Years
At the beginning of my sophomore year in college, my boyfriend of five years found prettier girls than me and broke off our relationship. I was devastated, near suicide. So, my best friend–one of the beauties from the Snake Pit visit–refused to let me stay home on my first weekend as a sad single. She suggested I join her and her fiancé on a “double date” with Roy Andrews. Roy was a close friend of ours from high school, but my best friend warned me, “I heard he’s changed. He went down to Texas and got religion.”
“I’ve been dealing with religious kooks my whole life,” I replied, with more than a little bitterness. My family had always used Scriptures as a weapon to prove their theology superior to others.
I wanted nothing to do with another Bible-thumping Christian.
Not A Bible Thumper
Roy and I continued to see each other regularly. He didn’t bring up Jesus or the Bible unless I asked–which I did after seeing how truly changed my old friend was. “Why does your Jesus seem so different than the God I’ve heard about all my life?”
His answer turned my world upside down.
“The Bible is a single story from Genesis to Revelation,” he said. “It’s God’s love letter to you. If you believe it and trust Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection as our Hero’s greatest act of love–then He’ll come back for you and make you His perfect bride.” All I’d ever wanted was a husband who thought me beautiful and worthy of his love. I discovered that anyone can feel beautiful and beloved when they’re a bride in waiting…
“Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” Revelation 19:9
(CLICK HERE to read more about my personal testimony)
Eternally Beautiful and Beloved
I wish I could tell you that I’ve felt beautiful and beloved since that November night in 1983. But those smoky whispers from the pit of hell continued to attack me. As I’ve grown in my relationship with my heavenly Husband, I’m more inclined to believe His Word rather than Satan’s accusations. I’m NOT an ugly duckling. I’m Jesus’s bride. He knit me together just as I am and continues to patiently woo me and change me for my good and His glory.
For your Maker is your husband—the Lord Almighty is his name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit. Isaiah 54:5–6
You, too, can be God’s eternal bride–beautiful and beloved. If you’ve never prayed the “salvation prayer,” here are four easy words to escort you down the eternal aisle toward your Bridegroom: Cradle, Cross, Cavern, Crown.
Maybe pray something like this:
- Thank You, Jesus, for coming to earth in a CRADLE to humanly experience this earthy life–yet You remained completely without sin.
- Thank You for dying on a Roman CROSS to become the perfect Sacrifice for my sin and for all those on earth who recognize You as God. I recognize You as God, Jesus, and trust Your perfect blood has washed me clean so I can stand, unashamed, before the Father’s throne.
- Thank You, Jesus, for conquering death with that CAVERN (empty tomb), declaring Your power over Satan. The enemy has no power over me now or ever!
- Thank You for promising that you’ll return for me someday, wearing a CROWN on Your victorious head, to gather Your radiant Bride (the Church) for the wedding supper of the Lamb!
If you believe all you’ve just prayed, consider yourself eternally beautiful and beloved by the God whose love is steadfast from Genesis to Revelation!
Did This Post Bless You?
Though I normally don’t ask my Newsies to share the exclusive featured article from my newsletter, today is different. If you know of anyone who needs this eternal encouragement–that they are beautiful and beloved–please copy & paste the URL from this page.
Then walk in humble assurance that YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL AND BELOVED! 🥳
