EVER so often I see a husband and wife pair who look like ‘beauty and the beast’ and I find myself wondering what ever made the pretty girl marry such an ugly fellow or vice versa, and then in the course of conversation I find them telling me about the other, “he is a good person.”
Moses Mendelssohn, the grandfather of the famous German composer, was short of stature and, even worse, was hunch-backed. But he was madly in love with the attractive daughter of a rich merchant in Hamburg.
Once when he visited the merchant, he was allowed to go to her room. The beautiful young woman was repulsed by his misshapen figure, and did not even look up at him. Several attempts to make conversation with her failed.Finally, Moses asked her in low tones, “Do you believe marriages are made in heaven?” With her eyes on the floors she replied, “Yes. And do you?” “Yes I do,” replied Moses.
Then he explained: “It happens this way. When a boy is born, the Lord in heaven announces which girl he will marry. At my birth the Lord indicated my future bride, but added, ‘your wife will be humpbacked.’
“Spontaneously I pleaded with him, ‘Lord, it would be a tragedy for the woman to be humpbacked; give me the hump and let the woman be beautiful.’ The Lord answered my prayer.” The girl was deeply moved by these words. She turned her face to Moses, gave him her hand, and later became his wife.
I am sure the hunchback looked after his wife well and later when people asked her about him; she must have smiled and said the very same words, ‘he is a good man.’ Beauty fades, doesn’t it?
And it fades so fast. Handsome husband turns out to be a beast in sheep’s clothing as he looks with a roving eye at anything that wears skirts. Poor wife soon finds the very looks she fell for are the cause of a broken marriage. Or, a hardworking, devout husband finds his wife a flirt and is horrified by her advances to all and sundry.
Scratch beauty and there could be a monster inside. When Samuel, prophet of the Jews, was searching for a king for Israel he looked at many handsome men and asked God, “isn’t this the man?” Gold told him, “man looks on the outside, I look at the heart.”
That I think is what we should pray for; to be discerning, to be able to see beyond the good looks and into the heart, then like Moses Mendelson’s wife you can turn to friend and say, “he’s a good man” or “she is a good woman!” Which is why they are the real handsome man or pretty woman..!
