This Is Way Better Than Botox!

In the Sunday morning services at our church, the lights are almost always dimmed during the prayer time.

A young boy, three rows up and to the left of where I was sitting, recently caught my attention.

He was looking down, and his face was glowing.

No, he wasn’t having a spiritual experience, if that’s what you were thinking.

He was looking at his smartphone and was radiant.

I was confident he was looking at Scripture, though—he was sitting right next to his mother!

When I saw him, I immediately thought of Psalm 34:5, which says, “They looked to Him and were radiant.”

I couldn’t help but grin.

I love our Beloved’s sense of humor, don’t you?

As I approached the big 5-0, I could hardly believe it.

It wasn’t that long ago when I thought someone in his or her fifties was ancient.

With the exception of experiencing a few aches and pains every now and then, I didn’t feel anywhere near fifty.

I said, “I didn’t feel anywhere near fifty.”

I didn’t say I didn’t look it.

Just ask the sales lady at the counter of one of our local department stores.

While I was doing some holiday shopping a few years ago, she asked me if I had the special discount card for people who were fifty and older.

Having recently turned 48, I smiled and politely responded, “I’m not 50 yet, but getting close.”

No, I’m not holding a grudge.

No, really.

All kidding aside, with each passing year in my Beloved, life just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter.

The apostle Paul speaks of the believer’s internal fountain of youth in his second letter to the church at Corinth:

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).

As evidenced by the store clerk’s assumption about my age, wrinkles have popped up all over my face (like uninvited guests) in the past few years.

I am beginning to understand why all the fuss about creams, chemical peels, Botox, and plastic surgery, and asking my Beloved to cause me to age gracefully and gratefully.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could find a picture of how we wanted to look and just stare at it until we were magically transformed into that image?

I’m dreaming again, I know, but do you realize that we Christians have a promise greater than that of physical transformation?

The only thing it costs us is our time and focus.

The Word of God tells us that as we gaze upon His glory, we are being transformed into His same image.

This principle of being “transformed by beholding” comes from 2 Corinthians 3:18:

“Now all of us, with our faces unveiled, reflect the glory of the Lord as if we are mirrors; and so we are being transformed, metamorphosed, into His same image from one radiance of glory to another, just as the Spirit of the Lord accomplishes it.” (VOICE)

Even though we cannot yet see our Beloved face to face, we can gaze on His glorious person by spending focused time with Him and meditating on what His Word says about who He is in us and who we are in Him.

And as we do this, our lives will become a radiant reflection of Him.

Physical beauty will continue to fade as we age and become more gravitationally challenged, but spiritual transformation lasts forever. Great hope and comfort can be found in knowing this.

Oh, and by the way, one day we will experience the complete package of our salvation when we get our glorified bodies—bodies saturated with divine, life-giving energy that will live forever in perfect union with Jesus (1 Cor. 15:51–57).

Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

The older I get, the more I appreciate and look forward to the fulfillment of this incredible promise.

This is way better than Botox!

I hope you enjoyed this excerpt from my first book—my six-week study on the first two chapters of the Song of Songs, His Banner over Me Is Pursuing Love.

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To learn more about enjoying the nourishment and rest that come from walking in the truth of grace, I invite you to check out all of my books and my video series based on my first devotional.