2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:2-3)

We have a lot of paintings that depict Christ, and they all seem to make Him appealing to look at. Yet it seems Isaiah is telling us that Jesus was not good-looking, and whatever drew people to Him, it was not His appearance.

So I guess the question that we should ask ourselves is, “Will I be disappointed when I find Jesus isn’t the handsome speciman of manhood that He’s been depicted as? Will I mind if I meet my Savior and find He is plain… or even… ugly?”

I asked this of myself and I realized that answering honestly, I might be disappointed. It caused me to realize that I need to become better at looking deeper than skin-deep at the people around me. It caused me to realize that the ability to see someone’s potential, their goodness, their talents, their wisdom, their valuable experience, and appreciate them for who they are is basically charity… the pure love of Christ.