when the makeover takes time

We’ve all seen a makeover or two. A young woman, perhaps, wearing ill-fitting clothes, no makeup, unkempt hair. She’s taken under the wing of a fashion guru, an expert hair stylist, and a makeup artist. And voila! In just a couple of hours she is transformed into an image of beauty, hardly recognizable for the dramatic change.

And we love it. We love the change from the drab to the beautiful. We marvel at how quickly the change occurred. We like fast.

This is nearly the last moment I’ll see these pearly whites for quite some time. In just a few days my daughter will be getting braces and beginning a small makeover of her own.

It won’t be quick. And it will even be painful at times. The result will still be beautiful.

I think there are times in our spiritual walk when we see our sin and desperately want to be changed. We finally come to the end of ourselves and know that we cannot will the change to happen. We fall on our knees before God and we beg for a makeover. And though we may not always confess it, we secretly wish it to happen fast. We want beautiful and we want it now.

We get frustrated when God doesn’t do things our way.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. – 2 Corinthians 5:17

God surely is in the business of makeovers. Yet in His wisdom, He usually doesn’t perform the instant makeovers like those shown on television. No, His makeovers are more like the braces kind. They take time, years even. And often there is pain along the way, as He tightens the wires to move our flesh in accordance with His will.

for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. – Philippians 2:13

When we trust Him to make the changes in His way and in His time, we may one day look in the mirror and realize we are not the same person we were a year or two ago. It’s a wow moment when we see the beauty He has brought out in us. And we marvel at the Master’s work.

In hope,
Shelli