If anyone falls off the proverbial ugly tree, the branches they hit on the way down are actually other gifts and blessings. God does not short change anyone but gives to each a variety of gifts to be used for His purpose.

The abuse of the gift of beauty is rampant in our culture. It’s used for vanity and self-worship. In this case it’s an impediment to the person’s development and salvation. It then becomes a cross that has to be carried. It’s difficult to worship God when the world treats you as the object of worship. Many of these “beautiful people” are into substance abuse because they can feel the exploitation of the world. Many squander their other talents and are left empty when the beauty fades.

I used to refer to JPII as the Beautiful Pope. He used his attractive physical attributes to draw others to the Church and to God. When his beauty receded towards the end of his life so did the crowds. Yet he continued to do God’s work because his beauty was whole. Padre Pio and Mother Theresa were less attractive and worked in less attractive surroundings. Would any of us dare to say that their accomplishments were less valuable?

Most of the times a person who does not appeal to the world is much more able to accomplish his/her plan in an unassuming manner, just like the middle child.

We must evaluate beauty like a participant, a parent looking at their child and not a hungry spectator looking at a “dog’s dinner”; In which case beauty IS in the eyes of the beholder.

However, if we do not reflect on the true, the good, and the beautiful being based in God, then we miss the mark completely (see current idolization of beauty for its own sake).

Because we need to fight the idolization of beauty for its own sake, it is far too easy to throw the baby out with the bath water.  There is such a thing as objective beauty because God is.  (Beauty is not SOLELY in the eye of the beholder.)

As teachers, parents, society, we need to be on the alert for the very young to train them up properly to always attribute the beauty they "naturally" see to God.

What about those of us that are "less than beautiful"?  Most likely, we have a bit more of the truth or the good.  But those take a more mature heart to "see".

Scripture does not tell us that Christ came to us with any extraordinary physical beauty as it does about David: (from a web site…)

• In the early material on David (1 Sam 16-17), three times the narrator calls attention to David’s beauty – more times in the Bible than in any other case. First, the prophet Samuel notes that David “was ruddy , and had beautiful eyes , and was handsome .”   

But instead hints at Christ’s more common physical appearance:  (from a web site…)

• The early references to Jesus' physical appearance are not flattering. "The earliest reference to the [physical] aspect of Jesus is in Justin the Martyr. He says that when Jesus came to the Jordan, 'He appeared without beauty … as the Scriptures proclaimed.'" Ibid. p. 69. Justin refers to the passage at Isaiah 53:2-3. See also Is. 52:14, and Psalm 22. "Clement of Alexandria says, 'Himself also, the Head of the Church, passed through the world unlovely in the flesh…'" Ibid. Tertullian, in arguing for the reality of human nature in Christ as Very Man, says as though it were certain, that the question, 'Whence has He this learning, and these wondrous works?' was the question of men who despised His human aspect, -'so completely was His body devoid of human nobleness, much more of heavenly lustre.'" Ibid. p. 70.

In a society so obsessed with “beauty” we become blinded to the soul. In heaven we will see beauty almost too wonderful to take… and even in looking at one another’s faces we will be overcome by the beauty, not by their physical brilliance but by the Godliness they possess.  

• Philippians 3: 20-21: 20For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.