Ears

On Piercings & Beauty

May Sixteen 2006

At this point you might be thinking “Ed is seriously preoccupied with beauty;” And you’d be right, I am; But it’s not just because I like to look at beautiful things and it’s not just because I enjoy beauty. It’s because I constantly find that what the world calls beauty isn’t and what the Word calls beauty is.

Fairly recently one of my good friends from College was all excited to show me her new piercing- a cute li’l stone where her umbilical cord once was. We talked about how common it was and it reminded me that any more it’s harder to find someone without one. A more extreme case is ears. Three weeks ago I met a girl in my genetics class. As we talked about our respective commutes (she thought hers was long!) I noticed that she had unpierced ears. Anyway as far as I remember this was only the second college age girl I've met who doesn't have (extra) holes in her ears. I think it's pretty rare. Many times we underestimate the natural unaltered beauty of our bodies, even our ears.

All of this to say I’ve decided that piercing or not does not determine beauty. Whether a girl has little stones in her ears or not does not occlude her from being beautiful, nor does it define her as being so. What I’ve found is that beautiful ears are ears that listen; The most beautiful ears listen to the pain of others. I’ve learned that the most beautiful hands are not always hands with french nails and painted flowers; They are hands that love the well and hold the sick. Beautiful eyes are not beautiful because the are outlined with eyeliner and contrasted with eyeshadow or covered with contacts or framed by glasses; They are beautiful because they see the broken and the shamed and nothing can distract them from their work. Beautiful lips are not beautiful because of cherry flavored lip gloss; They are beautiful because of the words they speak and also the moments they are silent. The most beautiful lips speak the wisdom of Christ. Beautiful legs dance in expression and declaration of praise. Beautiful feet take you where you ought to go.

It seems like a contradiction but invariably some people sidestep this incontrovertable dogma because some of the most beautiful ears I have seen were deaf and some of the most beautiful eyes were blind. How is it then that beautiful ears must listen and beautiful eyes must see the broken? Simply this: It is not the eyes or the ears themselves nor their abilities that make them beautiful, it is the heart behind them, the heart of the one who created them.

Paul wrote Timothy about this very issue: "And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and Fact: Christ had piercings; They were not for style sake, they were for our sake!not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes. For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do." (NLT) That isn’t to say you should try and look poor or unkept but in everything remember that it is not your clothing not your adornments that make you beautiful; Spiritual beauty always takes priority over physical beauty.

Finally one last note. If for whatever reason your ears aren’t pierced remember that it isn’t plain at all- in fact it’s rare. I promise you that your ears will look fantastic with any outfit (whether the outfit is fantastic or not) and that little gems, hoops or danglies won’t ever make them more beautiful than they already are. Understand that it wouldn’t be wrong to pierce them- still I’d encourage you not to feel pressured; It’s a good reminder for the rest of us that beauty isn’t about hardware, it’s about loving Christ well.

-Ed Palma

I've never met a girl who was pretty with makeup who wasn't pretty without it.

-Elisha J. Baker