Ugly is not your enemy

Last night I got dressed up all fancy, rang Hayley’s mum to baby sit Ben, and took Hayley off to the city. Last night, we went to the ballet. It was an early birthday present for Hayley and we had a hoot. For me it was the first time. And I was impressed. You can’t help but be. The ballet we saw was Cinderella – a classic that also helped me to follow the story line without too much trouble. But it got me thinking.

In the fairy tale the baddies are the 2 evil stepsisters. They are evil and they are ugly. In fact the two go together like Australian summers and melanomas. Think through all the stories you were told as a kid – the evil one is always the ugly one – the big bad wolf, the witch in Hansel and Gretel, Peter Pan’s nemesis, Captain Hook. But the problem is that evil is not defined by being ugly.

In Genesis, God is the one who decides what is right and what is wrong. Adam and Eve’s great sin is not being ugly, but challenging God’s right to make that call. And that is the essence of evil and sin, telling God that he has no idea what he is doing and that we will decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, thank you very much.

We haven’t been helped by being told that evil is always ugly. In fact those who challenge God’s right to be God in this world are not disfigured grotesque story book freaks, but often well spoken folk with good teeth. Proverbs describes folly as a women with “crafty intent“ who lures men to their destruction. She says, “I have covered me bed with coloured lines from Egypt, I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come let us drink deep of love until morning.” Sounds pretty appealing to me. What about you? No wart on the nose or devious cackle to warn of folly’s price.

“Stolen water is sweet, and fruit eaten is secret is delicious!”
But little do they know that the dead are there,
That her guests are in the depths of the grave.
Proverbs 9:17-18

Cinderella got me thinking that we can’t wait to see ugly before we take a stand against evil. We need to guard what is good (as defined by God) even if it is threatened by the beautiful people. Ugly is not your enemy.

Scott