What Would Jesus Do?

The complications from cosmetic surgery can include, permanent scarring, infection, nerve injury, risks involving anesthesia and cardiac and pulmonary failure...not to mention death. So why are we still trying to fight the obvious fact that over time people change both physically and emotionally? When did we become obsessed with the idea that "old" is bad? You can blame advertising, television or vanity for this preoccupation with youth, but there is still no way to hold back the natural tide of aging. One can only do so much before the great "age tsunami" washes over all of us.

1. Dye your hair: It grows out in six weeks. Try getting it the same color every time.
2. Get injections: Are lumps under your nose better than lines on you lips?
3. Face lift: Don't kid yourself, one is never enough.
4. Permanent makeup: You've got to be joking. Styles change. Do you want to be stuck with last year's eyebrows?
5. Even if you "fix" you face to back to 1984, you'll have to go a round in turtlenecks and gloves to hide the rest of your body, which looks more like 2009.

In Midland, there are eleven pages in the telephone book with listings of area churches. Around here folks are always questioning what would Jesus do. So, I decided to try and find out just what Jesus would have to say about cosmetic surgery.

Proverbs 31:30 Beauty is vain... Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting.
Timothy 2:9-10 I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or golden pearls or expensive clothes.
Proverbs 16:31 Gray hair is a crown of splendor....
1 Samuel 16:7 The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

According to the scriptures, humans are God's gift and shouldn't be altering themselves. If you don't like the Christian response, you won't like the Jewish stance, either. Rabbi Waldenberg states that cosmetic surgery that is not for "true illness or pain is an affront to God and is forbidden." Obviously, if you're waiting for the Rapture or the Messiah you'd better keep your own face intact.