I have admired the typical perception of a beauty pageant as it occurs once a year. It features and gives approval for women with petite frames. The advent of the internet has drastically changed this perception. Although they are not "live," Internet and mail - in pageants have provided a plethora of entertainment to those who compete and an opportunity not available to those unable or hesitant to travel. This however, has given the competition a somewhat globalized feature. I understood that the size of a woman no longer stand as a limiting factor because many of these competitions espouse the goal of "natural" beauty. This goes a long way to buttress the point that no woman's physical feature is a curse by a gift from God. As a result, more and more pageants, are being dedicated to the "plus sized" delegate today. This primarily is to give value to the physical appearances of the women, removing the tremendous pressure on women to spend time and money on fashion, cosmetics, hair styling and even cosmetic surgery in the name of being "beautiful". Pundits say that this new idea, opposed to the pursuit of physical beauty, will discourage women from dieting to the point of harming themselves.
Though most beauty pageants these days have components that are not based purely on physical appearance, yet "unattractive" contestants are unlikely to win, no matter how talented, poised, intelligent, educated, resourceful or socially conscious they are. To avoid sounding supportive or discouraging, I would like to present a graphical/pictorial view of what the Bible teaches. I would like to begin by telling us a story of what happened few years back. I cannot actually remember where I read the story but it is still fresh in my mind.
It is a story of a 33-year-old pitching star that was found dead in his hotel room. His physical appearance showed an active and healthy young man. However, the autopsy revealed that he had a 90-percent blockage in two of three coronary arteries, an enlarged heart, and a blood clot in one of the arteries. His appearance misled many people to think that he was physically healthy.
Appearances can deceive. So many people who are living today may have one deadly or ugly medical report within. When God conducted what looked like a beauty pageant today, expectations were high that the most "beautiful", well respected in years, tall, huge and fair to look on, etc., will be the crown prince, but God had a different idea. When all the sons of Jesse were brought forward before Samuel, they were taken through a crash programme to make them presentable before God. God is not interested in dressing people up casually because there is a work somewhere for them to do. God always picks His men without notice and their lives will still be correct. Just like beauty queens lined up for examination and possible selection, the seven sons of Jesse had time to prepare themselves, whereas God's favoured choice did not have that time. He was in the field when the man of God came, but the moment he arrived at his father's summon, he was anointed.
This tells us that spiritual health is not determined by how we look, but by how we live our lives. When God is looking for a man to use, He will peep into his family life. He looks into his relationship with people. Is this really what matter to people today as they organize beauty pageants and crown "beauty queens"? One important thing to remember here is that no matter the claims of people, no "crown queen" in the history of beauty pageants has ever met the standard of God. Men always look on the outward and not as God does. This is exactly what Samuel did and God has to rebuke him: "But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:1-12).
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