BEAUTY
IN THE SCARS

Topics: Beauty; Grace; Scars; Trials; Worth

References: Mark 10:21; John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 11:16–33; Ephesians 2:8–9

A Nike commercial didn’t say a word. It simply showed a series of people with one thing in common: a nasty injury or scar. There was a cowboy with a huge scar around his eye, a fellow with a bulbous cauliflower ear, and another man with horribly callused feet. There was no explanation—simply the Nike logo and “Just Do It.”

The ad has been criticized as being incomprehensible and extreme. But the key to the commercial is the background music. Joe Cocker sings, “You are so beautiful … to me.”

To the wrestler with the misshapen ear, the surfer with a shark bite, the bull rider blind in one eye, injuries are beauty marks. And to their fans, these athletes are beautiful because of their scars. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” says Mike Folino, the ad’s creator.

God’s grace is just as jarring. Our beauty is found not in us, but in the one who looks down at us—injured, blind, and scarred—and sings, “You are so beautiful … to me.”

—Jim Congdon, Topeka, Kansas