When her beautiful brown skin started losing its color, a young woman felt frightened, as if she were disappearing, losing her “self.” With heavy makeup, she covered up “my spots,” as she called them—patches of lighter skin caused by a condition called vitiligo. It’s a loss of skin pigment, melanin, which gives skin its tone.
Then one day, she asked herself: Why hide? Relying on God’s strength to accept herself, she stopped wearing heavy makeup, gaining attention for her self-confidence. Eventually she became the first spokesmodel with vitiligo for a global cosmetics brand.
“It’s such a blessing,” she told a TV news host, adding that her faith, family, and friends are the ways she finds encouragement.
This woman’s story invites us to remember we each are created in God’s image. “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). No matter what we look like on the outside, we each are image bearers of God. As His created persons, we reflect His glory, and as believers in Jesus we are being transformed to represent Him in the world.
Do you struggle to love the skin you’re in? Today, look in the mirror and smile for God. He created you in His image.