Straight or Crooked?

Straight or Crooked?

The Lord sees not as man sees.

Man looks on the outward appearance

but the Lord looks at the heart.

1 Samuel 16:7

As a kid, “crooked” did not even begin to describe the look of my permanent teeth.  I had buck teeth in a mouth that was barely large enough to accommodate a normal full set.  When I was twelve years old, my dentist pulled four teeth to make some room, and sent me to an orthodontist.  I emerged from almost 6 years of treatment with very straight teeth – a symbol of beauty in the American culture.

I was surprised to read that some young Japanese women were paying a considerable fee to have their teeth transformed from straight to crooked.  Called yaeba teeth, they are fang-like incisors that usually only occur when a mouth is overcrowded.  Yaeba teeth make Japanese girls “cute,” more approachable, less “perfect.”  These changes will attract a suitable husband.  Cosmetic dentists glue sections of artificial teeth onto the natural tooth to give it a crooked appearance.

Life’s school of hard knocks has taught me that trying to attract a life’s partner by changing who you really are to please them is a self-defeating strategy.  Each of us comes from the hand of our Creator as a unique human being – snaggle teeth, straight teeth, or somewhere in between.  I do not want to be loved for what I look like.  I want to be valued and cherished for who I am.  My teeth may not always be with me, but my character will define me for the rest of my life.

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O Lord, You’re beautiful;

Your face is all I seek.

And when Your eyes are on this child,

Your grace abounds to me.