There's a story about a young girl sitting on her grandfather's lap as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time she would take her eyes off the book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek — then her own, then his again, comparing the two.

Finally she asked, "Grandpa, did God make you?"

"Yes, sweetheart," he said. "God made me a long time ago."

She paused. "Did God make me too?"

"Yes indeed, honey. God made you just a little while ago."

She felt their faces once more and said, "God's getting better at this, isn't he?"

It's a sweet story, and her logic makes a kind of innocent sense — smoother skin, fewer wrinkles, newer must mean better. But of course that's not how it works. God didn't make her grandfather as a practice run. God made him exactly as he was meant to be at every age — including the one he was in that very moment, wrinkles and all.

We live in a culture that tells us something closer to the little girl's logic than to the truth. Every day, in advertisements and on screens, we are told that we need to look a certain way to be happy, accepted, loved. Bright white teeth. A full head of hair, no gray. A certain shape, a certain size, a certain youthfulness we're meant to chase indefinitely.

It isn't true. Scripture tells us we are made in God's own image — and that image was never contingent on age, weight, skin color, or appearance. God's love has never worked that way.

The Psalmist wrote: "It was you who formed me, Lord... I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (Psalm 139:13-14) Not fearfully and wonderfully made once, at twenty-five, and then slowly less so every year after. Fearfully and wonderfully made — full stop, at every age, including this one.

Prayer: Loving God, we pray today especially for those who are struggling with self-image. We recognize how hard it is to love our neighbors when we can scarcely love ourselves. Wash over each of us with your grace. Remind us that it was you who formed us, and that we are fearfully and wonderfully made — in your own image, at every age. Amen.

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