Last week, People, America's most-read magazine, crowned Jennifer Aniston as the world's most beautiful woman 2016. According to the celebrity weekly, the actress insists that she "feels her best when she's healthy and strong". Aniston, although flattered by the prize which she's won once before, was quick to acknowledge that beauty is about more than physical appearance. When asked how she defines beauty she told the magazine: "Inner confidence, peace, kindness, honesty, a life well-lived."
People's award might stick to conventional criteria when it comes to deciding who will take the crown but this year's winner is one of a number of the "most beautiful" women to acknowledge that beauty is about a lot more than what you look like, especially when what you look like is often determined by a glam squad.
The majority of us, celebrities and non-celebrities alike, are never going to be publicly named the most beautiful person in the world. But that doesn't mean we're not beautiful. Far from it. Every single one of us is beautiful, after all we are created in God's image and by his hands.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Our interior beauty, the type that is often neglected by society, is the most important kind in the Bible. And it's the sort that God cares about.
"But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7)
Proverbs 31:30 continues this idea by telling us that our beauty cannot be seen in isolation from our faith in God. It's our faith that gives us a beauty that lasts and which cannot be faded by the effects of time:
"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."
Despite knowing that God's most interested in what's in our hearts, not what's on our bodies, we can still make the mistake that adorning ourselves with fancy clothes and make-up is what makes us beautiful. When it's all stripped away, we feel ugly and want to hide ourselves.
But in biblical terms, outward adornments couldn't be further from true beauty.
"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." (Collosians 3:12)
It's not our outerwear which defines us but the attributes which we clothe ourselves with.
You don't need to make it onto a "world's most beautiful" list to know that you're a masterpiece. God speaks of our beauty multiple times throughout the Bible so if you're ever seeking affirmation of the fact that you are indeed beautiful, you need look no further than His word.
