My Lipstick Drawer

The other day I took a picture of my drawer full of lipsticks. My thought about my lipstick drawer was that it looked very lonely. The tubes of lipstick sit in the same drawer day after day. They get no attention. They simply sit in a dark drawer. Not much hope of being used.

It made me think about the show, Beauty and the Beast, and how the lamp, and the candle holder, and the teapot and teacup sing and dance, but are so lonely without being used. Could my lipstick cases be singing songs of loneliness deep inside my drawer? No, they simply sit in a dark drawer, quiet and still.

On a Sunday morning, during the pandemic, I reached for one of my lipsticks, in my drawer, threw it in my bag and headed to church. I normally would have put on that lipstick, but it occurred to me that if I spread lipstick on my lips and then put on a mask at church, I might end up with lipstick spread inside my mask and possibly over more of my face than my lips. Instead I used my lip balm, with no color.

So, I wonder, what is the purpose of having lipstick in a drawer if I never wear it? I think I may, at times, feel a little bit like those lipsticks; stuck in my home, lonely, not being useful, not wanting to sing and to dance.

But, God’s Word says we are worth much more than a tube of lipstick. In fact, we are "worth far more than rubies" (Proverbs 31: 10). So even when we are stuck in our homes, we are still worthy, and needed, loved, and valuable.

The next time I show up at church in a mask, I might just have lipstick on underneath, and it might just spread to stain my mask, and other parts of my face, but I will still wear my mask, in order to love my neighbor, and to love myself.