Are looks really everything?

Sometimes our looks obsessed culture (and apparently it's a worldwide thing) really bothers me.  I think it's started to bother me even more, now that I have a strong desire to adopt a little boy with what is considered a "facial imperfection"- scars from cleft lip and palate.  All I can see when I look at his picture is an absolutely adorable little boy, and one who wants his own doggie to boot!  I don't want my children to be judged by their physical beauty.  I want them judged by their hearts, their beliefs, their willingness to serve God and their fellow humans, their ability to be the kind of people who make a difference in the world.

Someone very dear to me is suffering from a mental illness that seems to include hallucinations of the deterioration of her own face and those of her children.  Her constant focus is on the idea that they are all ruined because in her vision their faces are imperfect, not pretty.  Yes, I know, it doesn't say much for me, arguing with someone who isn't going to "get" the argument (what can I say, I'm a sucker for lost causes).  My dear hubby who's not very politically correct phrases it more like, "Why are you trying to argue with a crazy person?"  However, my conversations with her really dig into my consciousness later.  I really believe there must have been a seed of this feeling about physical beauty planted in her mind before she began her struggle to have this coming through so strongly now.

Of course one only has to turn on the television or flip through a magazine (children's magazines included) to see the human fixation on perfection.  The rest of the world probably already knew about Susan Boyle, the Scottish singer.  I do live under a rock (!) and she just came into my circle of knowledge recently.  I was sad to watch her audition video, because it was easy to read in all the faces present (especially the Britain's Got Talent judges) that no one believed this woman they all considered unattractive could possibly have been blessed with a beautiful voice.  When she started to sing, you could see Simon Cowell's eyebrows nearly join his hairline!  Another "phenomena" I recently noticed is a Taiwanese boy named Lin Yu Chun.  He's been mentioned on the Internet with uncomplimentary names like "Little Fatty".  Many have focused on his uni-brow.  Inside this package the world finds unlikely (or unseemly) also resides the voice of an angel.  Why do we believe that if you're not lucky enough to be wrapped in a fabulous package that you are less of a gift to the world?  Can God only bestow talent and value upon those He has also given great beauty?  Are the many "less than perfect" children awaiting homes around the world not valuable enough to be given a loving home? 

I thank God that He sees things differently than we do.  He made sure we knew it too... 1 Samuel 16:7 reminds us that "Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart."  I pray that my darling daughter and my "hopeful son," waiting in China to come home, grow to be people with beautiful hearts.  I pray for our world that someday, someone like Susan Boyle is not considered an astounding oddity. 

Who in your life doesn't "look" like there's anything there?  Are you brave enough to take a chance on the diamonds that may lie within?  Do you dare to look below the surface?