Having grown up (as some would have described me) as a Tomboy; I made it into my teens not too conscious of my looks or interested in make-up.
Then when I was 14 I met a boy!
And I didn't change.
I met him at a youth meeting and decided he was the guy for me.
(There really is a bit more to it than that but that might be for a different story sometime).
I didn't go to the youth meeting all the time but we got to know each other a little as friends over the next 2 years. There were things I wanted to know more about from the Bible and he was the one I talked to.
Two years after we met there was a Summer Youth Camp for a week and I wanted to go.
My problem was the week before it I was going to be on a School trip to France arriving back into Belfast on the day the camp started in Bangor. The Pastor of the church which ran the youth group approached my parents and asked if it would be ok with them for him to meet me off the boat in Belfast and take me to the camp and they agreed. I was delighted and even though I had been promised for a few years that I could go on this trip in my 5th year at the grammer school I was now looking forward more to the camp than to the trip to France.
While on the school trip I found I had a little blister forming on my cheek but just thought it would be ok. By the time I arrived at the youth camp I was greeted with remarks about how I really should go to the chemist and get something for my face but it was Saturday evening and they weren't open. By the time it got to Monday morning the blister had spread up my cheek and was not very nice looking. Walking me along to the chemist were two of my girl friends and this guy I liked, but when I got there I just didn't want to go in. I dreaded the thought of anyone touching this cheek and even though they tried to persuade me several times I would not go.
It got bigger and bigger and when I think back now I can't believe anyone would have wanted to be near me at all as it could have looked as if I was contagious with something.
Towards the end of the week this blister thing was quite a sight to see and was rather ugly. I was not looking at myself all day so I didn't have to see the ugliness but others did.
Then there was the day that we all went to walk up Slieve Donard the highest mountain in the Mournes (I believe). There was a bunch of us who got lost and headed the wrong way but had a laugh anyway. I'm not sure that everyone else would have been too happy had there been any accidents; as I was carrying the First Aid Kit.
Well who was I sitting beside in the car on the way home?
You've guessed it, that guy I liked.
Well I sort of (cough, cough) fell asleep on the way home and whose shoulder was conveniently there for my head to slip down unto?
You've guessed it, that guy I liked.
All during that week I was in his company a lot but never alone, always with other friends. Then the last night of the camp we did get the chance to be on our own for a very short time during which he told me he loved me. Quick work for the quiet lad everyone thought he was.
When I arrived home my parents were startled to see the "thing" on my face.
The doctor was called immediately and he did a home visit.
Apparently I had caught a virus while sunbathing in France and it had caused my skin to develop several small blisters as it burnt and these then turned into a horrible scab. I was prescribed an ointment which was very effective and the scab seemed to dissolve and most of it just slid down off my face. My family were relieved that my face cleared up very quickly with no scars, while I was relieved that there was not as much pain as I had feared. This virus still lies dormant under my skin and flares up now and again.
When I would think back to that time and tell our kids the story of how daddy told mummy he loved her before they even went on a date together; the main thing in my mind would always be that this was our special story. But one thing that my sister had said to me all those years ago always made it more special to me in particular. She said
She told me that she couldn't understand how I came back from camp with a boyfriend when I looked the way I did.
Later when I asked Fred (the guy I liked) why he hadn't been put off by my ugly face, he just told me that he thought I was beautiful and that something on my face didn't change his mind.
So you see all these years I have been very happy and extremely thankful that Fred loved me when I was looking ghastly and I never would have thought I was beautiful. He wasn't attracted by my looks, he was attracted to me, the person I was.
Maybe I should explain that 4 years after this camp I married Fred and we have now been married for 36 years.
Even as the years have passed and I have not thought myself to be pretty, Fred has often told me that I am Beautiful. That has always helped me to feel special. This is just one of the reasons I still love my husband.
A lot of the attributes of God are hard for us to see, or to understand because we think as humans but He is God. When I experience the love Fred has for me and how he sees me it helps me to see how God can love me and see me as beautiful just the way I am even though I am far from perfect for which I can never cease to be thankful.
Do you know that God wants you to know that you are beautiful?
Do you know that God loves you?
