“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “vanity of vanities! All is vanity!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2)
A Hollywood actress once told me that I was handsome. It’s a true story. In my twenties, I was cycling through a park in my hometown one day when I veered near two couples walking along, chatting together. I recognised my former school headmaster and his wife, and stopped to greet them momentarily before carrying on. I had recognised the other couple too but felt too shy to stay for a conversation. Then a voice shouted out at me, as I cycled onwards:
“Chris, my wife thinks you are very handsome!”
I turned and smiled politely before pedalling off, feeling flattered and also very flustered and embarrassed from this compliment given in the boom of a familiar and deep Northern Irish voice.
It’s not everyday that you receive a compliment from a film actress. The man who shouted towards me was Hollywood actor Liam Neeson, brother-in-law of my headmaster. And his wife, the conveyer of the compliment, was the late Natasha Richardson, daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and a highly regarded actress in her own right.
This all happened before Natasha tragically died from a brain bleed in 2009, after a skiing accident in Mont Tremblant Resort in Quebec, Canada. A shocking, horrific event. I survived a brain bleed myself two years ago and have a level of understanding of the suffering she experienced. I trust that this very gentle and kind woman, who left a legacy of integrity, notwithstanding her status as a Hollywood icon, is resting peacefully with the living God.
I have thought about that compliment over the years. There was me, a young, jobless man needing to go to employment centres and suffering from anxiety, under the care of a psychologist. Feeling somewhat depressed by certain things from the past – and then suddenly I had an unexpected encounter with a Hollywood actress, deemed one of the beauties of our age. And she told me something, via her husband, which lifted me momentarily to a height and encouraged me to think better of myself.
Yet I don’t want to be accused of vanity. As I was writing this devotional, and self-congratulating myself on my young handsomeness, my little boy just appeared next to me. Again, a true story. He looked up at my face bent over my laptop and said matter-of-fact: “You look like a monkey. You smell. You don’t have all your teeth and you have grey hair.” And with that, stretching his mouth into the widest, naughtiest schoolboy grin, he ran away, roaring with laughter!
That “handsome” young man has indeed grown into a toothless, middle-aged and pot-bellied man, reminded every day by his cheeky children that white hairs are increasing. I visited a barber recently and the first thing he said was. “Let’s take 10 years off you and make you look younger.” The same day, a physiotherapist informed me that my aches and pains were “age related, like wrinkles.”
I spent time shopping with my younger daughter recently and she called into a friend’s store and chatted confidently to this girl’s mum. I stood next to them like a hapless old man, smiling quietly through my gapped teeth and nodding my head quietly before she pulled me away. Later we sat on a bench to rest (it was me who needed to take a moment) when walking up a hill before she told me to start-up again. “Come on!” she ordered, marching up the hill as I tottered along behind her like a podgy, complaining toddler.
The temporal things – handsomeness or not, physical strength or not… all these things are fading away, just as the Bible teaches us. It’s the natural process of age and mortality. That’s why our legacies should never be about ourselves, rather exemplifying kindness to others. Natasha Richardson really showed that to me in the park that day, when I was personally, unknown to her of course, struggling with life circumstances. She showed the power inherent in the kindness of words.
Jesus Christ showed this kindness to his first followers too. He told eyes to be healed, ears to hear, and the dead to rise – power was going out of him and “healing them all” (Luke 6:19). His words to the crowds changed their lives. Words of authority and words of beauty. Words of hope and words of clarity. Words of life from life defined.
I am convinced that Jesus, the Word of God embodied, brings a hope which fires brightly beyond anything this universe can devise; to both young and old, handsome and ugly, male and female, to those in Hollywood and those living in hovels, to the living and the dead. He showed a love we can barely understand. All is vanity, but in Christ there is pure integrity and blessed assurance for our souls!
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
(Revelation 22: 12-13)
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