Nice!

May 29th, 2021| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Americans are cleaning up nicely. So reported The Wall Street Journal the other day.

As we return to civilization and normalcy after the annus horribilis of 2020 and its pandemic, folks are packing their shopping carts not with toilet paper and water sanitizers and disinfectants anymore. Nope!

What is flying off the shelves are deodorant, teeth whitener, perfume, nail polish, and sunscreen.

When the mayor of Washington, D.C., declared that bars and clubs would be fully open in June, one 25-year-old guy confessed:

I have a month to get ready. I ordered teeth-whitening gel online, and have been using more facial treatment masks and tanning outside. It will be awkward meeting strangers again. Everyone wants to look their best.”

Thankfully, unlike home- and self-cleaning supplies last year, there is an ample supply of deodorant and mouthwash.

A host of retailers are reporting strong for the spring quarter, noting that apparel and stuff to make one look nice were all selling well.

Reported Walmart Inc., finance chief Brett Biggs:

Beauty products and teeth whiteners were big sellers during our most recent quarter. You can tell that the masks are coming off.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask or physically distance in most settings, indoors or outdoors. So following her vaccination, one young lady got her first haircut since February 2020.

I literally booked my haircut for the day after I reached full immunity. I feel like I might need some new clothes because all I’ve done for the past year is just wear sweatpants.”

Said Target Chief Executive Brian Cornell:

The first quarter felt like a first step towards a post-pandemic world. Apparel sales rose 60% during the quarter compared with the same period last year, and there is is strong demand for dresses, cosmetics, sun care items, sporting goods and activewear.”

Consumers also are paying up for higher-end grooming products, perhaps in part because many Americans had their disposable income increase amid the pandemic.

Vineet Kumar, chief executive of Native Deodorant (owned by Procter & Gamble):

People are really willing to pamper themselves. They’re saying, ‘I’m getting prepared to go out so I need to start investing in myself.’”

While Christians have paid a lot of attention to eternity (and rightly so), one aspect of the life hereafter, I believe, hasn’t gotten much attention. You, see, God’s planning to do something about our looks as well, which in turn reflects on his own looks!

It is in Isaiah 60 that we see a number of mentions of the noun, “beauty” (tif’eret), or the verb, “beautify” (pa’ar), both derived from the same root. All of them in God’s utterances and connected with the divine Kingdom of the future.

“And I shall beautify My beautiful house.”
Isaiah 60:7

That’s understandable. His temple beautified. But it becomes more interesting:

“The Holy One of Israel … He has beautified you.”
Isaiah 60:9

Wow! I’m gonna be made to look good … by God himself. But it gets even better!

“No longer will you have the sun for light by day,
Nor for brightness will the moon give you light;
But you will have the Yahweh for an everlasting light,
And your God for your beauty.”
Isaiah 60:19

God for our beauty. Wow and wow!

But the best is this:

“Then all your people will be righteous …
that I may be beautified.”
Isaiah 60:21

God’s own beauty. Related to mine. Wow, wow, and wow!

Teeth all white, perhaps. But even more a life of purity: true beauty, that makes God look beautiful!

SOURCES:
The Wall Street Journal