By Xiao Meng, Spain

When I was a child, my mother told me that I didn’t have the bridge of the nose; that is, I was a person with no “nose.” Afterward, I continually heard some classmates and friends also say I was noseless. Hearing their words, I was sad and helpless. Year by year, I grew up with the dissatisfaction of my nose.

After graduation, I heard that Xiaoling, my good friend of the junior middle school, ran a beauty parlor in the city. beauty parlorWhen I was free, I would visit her for facial and massage. One day, upon my arrival at her shop, she let me see the changes of her face at once. I looked carefully at her face, saying: “It seems that your chin has become long and sharp.” Then she told me she had minor plastic surgery. I couldn’t believe that Xiaoling joined the ranks of cosmetic surgery. She said seriously to me: “You should have a nose job. Look at you: you have double eyelids, long eyelashes, big eyes, an oval face and perfect-shaped lips. You only don’t have the bridge of your nose. So your eyes look wide apart, which makes your face look flat. If your nose is fixed, your face will soon become dimensioned and your temperament will be naturally improved….” Then I said: “It is true that my nose doesn’t look good. But concerning the surgery on it, I think it’s dangerous, and I’m a little afraid.” Xiaoling smiled and went on saying: “We’ve thought about the risk. Do you think we are not afraid? We only choose the safe surgery.” She then told me the microsurgery she had introduced into her shop most lately. She said: “It’s riskless to have microsurgery. You only need to have an injection and then certain materials will be injected into your nose. No operation. No sedation. You can leave once it’s finished. If you aren’t satisfied with the result, you can have the materials taken out at any time.”

After hearing what she said, I was somewhat tempted by it, and started to think: Over the many years, it’s really my sore point that my nose doesn’t look good. If I had cosmetic surgery on my nose, would my anxiety be cast off? Besides, the society indeed judges people by appearance. Beautiful women are more popular wherever they go; while, on the contrary, ugly women are unpopular and rejected anywhere. The rich people also want to have a beautiful lady as his companion, in that they can enjoy others’ admiration. If my nose is fixed, my facial features will look solid, and even if I won’t be more beautiful, at least, my temperament will be improved. … But, what if the surgery failed and my nose got crooked? Would I be disfigured? Even if the cosmetic surgery was successful, wouldn’t it have after-effects in the future? In those cases of failure in cosmetic surgery I have seen previously, some even claimed people’s lives. Thinking of these, I hesitated. But when I saw many colleagues and acquaintances around me become more beautiful after having cosmetic surgery, I was dissatisfied with my nose more than ever. If my nose was fixed, I would surely be more beautiful. After struggle, I resolved to hold nothing back and got a nose implant. After that, my nose really looked good. My classmates and friends all said that I was much more beautiful than before. My vanity was greatly satisfied.

Two years later, what had worried me most did happen: My nose was a little deformed. The fillers spread aside. The root of my nose looked bigger than before. It seemed a little bit swollen and the upper part became wider than the lower part. As a result, my nose became disjointed with its bridge. I was very nervous: It’s only two years since the surgery and my nose started to deform. What would happen next? I then found the beautician and asked her about that. She said: “This is normal. Because they aren’t silicone implants, but semi-solid and semi-liquid materials which can be shaped. If they are out of shape, squeeze them and they will be OK. Additionally, the service life is limited. So several years later, the materials will just naturally become less. To keep them in shape, all you can do is continue to implant materials, and there is no better way.” Hearing her words, I was dumbfounded and felt that I had been deceived. When I was given the implants, the surgeons promised me about ten years service life. Why were they out of shape only after two years? Their promise of service after the surgery was actually to make me be injected more implant materials and get more money from me. Receiving such a result, I was very sad and regretful. At the beginning, I just expected to be more pretty through cosmetic surgery. Unexpectedly, I was uglier than before afterwards. I asked myself constantly: I knew clearly cases of failure in cosmetic surgery and their grave consequences, but why did I still resolved to do that?

One day, fortunately, I accepted God’s kingdom gospel. I saw God’s words say: “When a new trend sweeps through the world, perhaps only a small number of people are on the cutting edge, acting as the trendsetters. They start off doing some new thing, then accepting some kind of idea or some kind of perspective. The majority of people, however, will be continually infected, assimilated, and attracted by this kind of trend in a state of unawareness, until they all unknowingly and involuntarily accept it and become submerged in it and controlled by it. One after another, such trends cause people, who are not of sound body and mind, do not know what the truth is, and cannot differentiate between positive and negative things, to happily accept them as well as the life views and values that come from Satan. They accept what Satan tells them about how to approach life and the way to live that Satan ‘bestows’ on them, and they have neither the strength nor the ability, much less the awareness, to resist.”

After reading God’s words, I knew that pursuing vain beauty and having cosmetic surgery for good appearance are evil trends raised up by Satan. I didn’t have the truth and wasn’t able to discern positive and negative things, so I couldn’t help but follow the evil trends and be assimilated by it. Loving beautyThinking back, I often heard some popular sayings, such as, “Women should learn to dress themselves up.” “Loving beauty is the patent of women,” “Good-looking is the capital of women, and loving beauty is innocent,” “A pretty woman is qualified to marry a rich man.” Unknowingly, the poisons like the thoughts within them have been deeply rooted in my heart. That made me think that women are bound to seek after beauty; the more beautiful a woman is, the more capital she’ll possess, so that she’ll be highly regarded by others. So, when Xiaoling introduced me to the medical technology of fixing nose, although I knew clearly that it was dangerous, yet in order to become prettier, I followed the trend without hesitation. In consequence, the cosmetic surgery failed and it brought me harm and pain. These were the dire consequences of my being poisoned by the satanic evil trends. Look at the society now: How many people have spared no expense in having cosmetic surgery and are deep in debt? Some of them not only fail to become more beautiful, but even are disfigured and suffering from the after-effects of the surgery. What’s worse, some lose their lives, causing pain to both themselves and their family. At this point, I realized the root cause of all these tragedies is that man is corrupted and poisoned by Satan. Satan raised up the evil trends to deceive man. People like us who had no discernment of positive and negative things would fall into its trap, willing to be tempted, controlled and afflicted by it. In this way, Satan achieved its evil purpose of devouring man. God’s words made me have some discernment about the evil substance of Satan using social trends to corrupt man.

Later, I saw the words of God say: “Since the creation of the world, I have begun to predestine and select this group of people—namely, you of today. Your temperament, caliber, appearance, and stature, your family into which you were born, your job, and your marriage—you in your entirety, even including the color of your hair and your skin, and your time of birth—were all arranged by My hands. I arranged by hand even the things you do and the people you meet every single day, not to mention the fact that bringing you into My presence today was actually done by My arrangement. Do not throw yourself into disorder; you should proceed calmly.” I spontaneously remembered the Bible records: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27). “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen 1:31). It is true that man is created by God. Our appearance, caliber and marriage were all arranged by God long ago. They wouldn’t change as our appearance changed. Moreover, even though we have different appearances, beautiful or ugly, yet God sees that it is good. Whereas I was not content with my appearance and attempted to make it prettier by means of human effort. So I could only reap what I had sown. Even if I became beautiful after surgery, what could I do with that transient beauty? Even if my vanity was temporarily satisfied, what use would it be? I wouldn’t have real joy and happiness in my heart, but would be even more empty. Many years later, when the after-effects of cosmetic surgery were increasingly exposed, I would suffer all the pain; why did I bother? Seduced by the evil trends of Satan, I went against God’s sovereignty and predestination, only reaping heartbreak and suffering. Though my appearance is not that beautiful, God didn’t belittle me, nor did He refuse to save me because of that. Instead, He selected me from the vast sea of people, brought me to His family, used His words to supply me and feed me to grow up. Tasting God’s love, I was very moved. I couldn’t help coming before God and praying to Him: “O God, I was blind and foolish before. Deceived by Satan’s evil trends, I disobeyed Your sovereignty and played games with myself, thus living in pain and depress. Today, You don’t disdain my appearance, still give me opportunity to be saved and enter into the heavenly kingdom. God, thank You for Your salvation. I’m willing to come out of Satan’s affliction and obey Your orchestration and arrangement!”

Through reading God’s words with brothers and sisters in the meeting, I understood some more truths, and gained true discernment about the methods Satan used to corrupt man and hurt man. I no longer felt brooding on the failure in cosmetic surgery. Rather, through my painful experience, I was able to hate Satan’s baseness and evil, and no longer fall into its trap. At the same time, I gained some true knowledge and experience of God’s holiness and God’s salvation. I knew that only God’s words can make us know the truth, break free from the seduction and affliction of Satan’s evil trends. Now, I have known some truths and live like humans. I feel secure and brightened in my heart. Also, I enjoy the true peace and joy. This is God’s immense love and salvation of us. In God’s family, we brothers and sisters won’t judge others by appearance. Whether beautiful or not, we can treat each other fairly and love each other. We fulfill our duty in our own roles, feel relaxed and released. I deeply appreciate that only if we come before the Creator, submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangement, seek after the truth, perform our duties as a creature, can we obtain true release and freedom in our heart, and live out a perfect life.