It has happened to me many times before.
I bump into something, it hurts for a moment, but doesn’t really seem like a big deal. Soon enough though, the area under my skin becomes discolored and gives way to a bruise. Bruises can be unsightly, uncomfortable and just plain ugly.

From a different perspective though, bruises are a beautiful thing. The temporary ugliness warns me that a more serious injury has occurred. If it were not for the bruise, I may not realize the extent of the problem.

So too in my own heart, and with the people I bump into — sometimes I need to see the ugliness before I can realize the severity of the problem.

Every day, most of us interact on some level with a combination of friends, relatives and strangers. From a morning commute, a trip to the grocery store or gas station, meetings at work or school, time at the gym or a meal with family. Some of these interactions will be pleasant, some will be brief and forgettable, others will be neutral and silent and still others will be quite unpleasant. It’s the last category, these unpleasant interactions that we must pay attention to.

Here is the problem: On an average day, between driving, walking, working and spending time with family, I see anywhere from dozens to a few hundred people each day. If the interactions are neutral, pleasant, brief or routine — I don’t really think about these people that much. But when my conversation or interaction is unpleasant and ugly, I take notice. It irritates me when someone drives like a bat out of hell. It bugs me when a person behaves selfishly, in anger or with disrespect.

The ugliness is the bruise, the warning, that there is something deeper going on. Like a bruise, bad behavior gets my attention. Typically, it’s negative attention. I see ugliness in someone and I am inclined to respond with ugliness in return. “You want to get ugly? Let’s get ugly!”

Instead of seeing an enemy — I need the eyes of Jesus, the great Physician, to see an opportunity.

Ugly people are ugly because they are wounded, broken and defeated. Maybe they brought some of it on themselves by their own rebellion to God — but regardless, they are in need of care rather than another lashing from my tongue.

Jesus put it this way in Luke 6:45: “…What you say flows from what is in your heart.”

If ugly words or ugly actions spew out of a person’s life — it’s indicative of their heart.

It indicates there is a wound there, a bruise, an injury of the soul. Often times these are self-inflicted wounds that occur during a lifestyle of rebellion and dissapointment that stems from chasing hard after things that do not satisfy.

When we meet someone who is acting out in ugliness — we need to interpret what the bruise is pointing to, rather than be offended or react.

Ugliness is an opportunity that wakes us up and allows us to really see, to really notice people in their brokenness. If they were well behaved, we wouldn’t have given them a second thought. But ugly people stand out.
When we find broken people, we find an opportunity for Jesus to work.

Jesus notices the ugly, the unsightly and the broken.

One day, a man with a deformed hand was sitting in the synagogue. Jesus told the man “stretch out your hand”. The man did and his hand was healed and restored perfectly.

Jesus encounters ugly, broken rebels all the time, and He has these words for them:

-” Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.” – Isaiah 55:2

-“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11:28

Who are the “ugly” people in your life?

They are the bruised, the broken, the hard to love.
They speak with venom on their lips.
They are characterized by extreme selfishnes and disregard for others.
Some of them are your neighbors or relatives. Some go to your church.
They will attack you verbally or through their actions, often times un-provoked.
They will demand their rights and their way and abuse yours if given the chance.
They will always be chasing after some new pursuit, yet never truly smiling.

These are the bruised and broken. These are the ones in need of the healing that only Jesus can bring.

Maybe, just maybe, you are honest enough to see the ugliness in your own soul.

You are the one that spews forth bitterness, contempt and anger.
You are the one what is bruised, broken and hard to love.

Don’t lose heart, Jesus notices you, he doesn’t condemn you, in fact, it’s for you that he came. It’s you He wants to deliver, fill and bless with the joy that only He brings.

It’s to you that these words were given: “…anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!(2 Corinthians 5:17)

As we come to Jesus individually, and we bring other broken people, He will make all things new, and all things beautiful in His time.