Makeup

My daily makeup regimen consists of concealer and a light foundation. If I’m feeling a little more glamorous, I might add some color on my eyebrows. I’ve always wished I could be one of those people who were good at makeup without really bothering to learn how – which, of course, do not exist. On special occasions, about twice or thrice a year, I’ll go to the salon and get the full treatment of hair and makeup.

I went to the salon last week for a friend’s wedding. As I was sitting on the chair, the makeup artist asked my permission if she could groom my eyebrows. I had my eyes closed while she took a blade and gently sculpted the hair off my eyebrows. It was at that point that I began to realize, I had an inordinately large amount of trust for a woman whom I met no more than thrice a year for me to be able to sit calmly as I allowed her to bring a deadly weapon near my eyes.

As she lightly dusted all sorts of colors on my eyelids, I began to marvel how I had come to the point that I could allow another person to determine the way I looked. She could have, if she wanted to, make me look like a drag queen or a 70s disco star or a Korean k-drama ajumma.

As she put the eyelash curler near my eye, I began to get nervous that she might accidentally pluck out half my eyelashes. She’s never done that but I was still nervous. And yet, I still allowed this woman to do with my face as she pleased because she’d had a good track record in the past 10 or so years. I had a lot of faith in this woman even if the only things I really knew about her was her first name and where she worked.

And since a makeup chair is as good a place as any to have a long reflective moment about life, I started asking myself if I had as much faith in God as I did with this woman. Had I allowed Him the same freedom to sculpt and shape my life as he pleased? Or did I stubbornly insist on what I wanted even if I knew He was leading me elsewhere? Did I hang on tightly to how I thought things should work out or did I trust His impressive track record in my life to direct my course? How did I come to trust this woman so much who knew me so little and trust God so little who knew me so much?

I’ve come to understand that faith and trust, whether in God or in people, are not one-time-big-time events or obstacle courses that one go through and end at the finish line. It is an ongoing relationship that grows ever deeper and tighter in the day-to-day events of life. To trust in God is to be able to sit patiently while He lovingly highlights and contours our lives. He might add a color here or there or He might do so all at once. Most of the time we do not even know what His grand design is, but we trust the He knows what He’s doing. Because He’s shown us, time and time again, that His designs are always more brilliant than anything we can come up with. And that his perspective far surpasses our sight. And that His love sees not just who we are but who we can become.