Rays of Light

I may not use a lot of makeup or fancy beauty products, but I am not opposed to them. After all, I have seen some pretty convincing before-and-after celebrity photos. However, before you select someone from a glamour magazine to emulate, you might want to consider this:

Mascara used to be made from bat guano (that’s bat poop to us simple folks). Likewise, bird poop is still used in certain luxury spa products, as well as snail secretions and other gross stuff. Additionally, some perfumes are made indirectly from whale vomit.

Right about now, you should be asking yourself what kind of person would ever look at steamy pile of whale vomit and think ‘Just what I‘ve been searching for, now I can make perfume.’

Call me crazy, but I suspect it might have been the Lord God that whispered the idea to someone in order to create a visual example of His glorious, transforming power. There are so many people out there who are deemed unlovable, unreachable and unwanted. But these are exactly the kind of people that God searches for; they are precious in His sight. He takes them, as repulsive as they seem to others, and turns their lives into something beautiful and exceedingly valuable.

I know this to be true because I am living proof. If only you could have seen where I came from versus where I am today, you would definitely see an incredible example of God’s miraculous transforming power.

To continue our beauty lesson, it might interest you to know that snake venom is used in many anti-aging skin care products. I guess someone didn’t realize that venom is poisonous. The use of this ingredient may seem absolutely insane, especially to a normative snake hater like me. But to God, it’s just another example of His transforming power.

Years ago, when the Lord first began teaching me about forgiveness, He helped me to understand what I now call the antivenin principle. Simply put, snake venom is often lethal, but many lives have been saved by a serum which is made from the very same venom.

Here’s how it works: professionals inject small amounts of snake venom into an animal, usually a horse, until it develops immunity antibodies against the venom. A serum is then made and injected into the snake bite victim. The antivenin then counteracts the deadly venom and the person’s life is spared.

When Satan, who is likened to a serpent, injects his venom in us through abuse, neglect, tragedy and so on, a part of us starts to die emotionally. But if we allow Him to, God can heal us, and turn those poisons into antivenin.

In other words, when we share our testimonies of emotional healing with others who have experienced the same kinds of ‘venom’ in their lives, we can truly empathize with their pain and help them through it in a way that others might not be able to. Satan intends his poison to destroy us, but God uses it to bring life.

We may not fully understand all the whys of life, but we can definitely see the WOWS of God’s healing power!

Postscript: Even though I don’t use much makeup, I love my scented bath products and lotions. So, if any of you find out that any of these are made with disgusting ingredients like llama spit, please don’t tell me; I still haven’t come to grips with the other stuff yet.