Tanning cream vs whitening cream

November is a great time to think about gratitude, which should help lead us to contentment.

Stepping out of our culture is the best way to see our culture clearly. I had lots of these unexpected moments when I lived in Indonesia, but this was the first.

My first trip to a Walmart-ish store I was trying to find lotion. My new friend shopping with me, a gal who had been ‘in country’ almost a year, explained to me that this would be a challenge, because most of the lotions had bleach.

I was sure that I must have heard her incorrectly, so I asked her to repeat it. Then I got to use that question that people new to a culture are always asking: “But why?”

She explained that some Indonesians still value lighter-colored skin, a sad holdover from their colonial days. This confused and saddened me, and as the still jet-lagged newbie, I wondered what was wrong with ‘them.’

But then God reminded me of all the ways Americans spend time and money to darken our skin, something my Indonesian friends always thought I made up when I told them, because who in their right mind would want to make their skin darker?

And then I realized the real problem. We the world over have an enemy who wants us to be so discontented with how God made us that we chase after what we wish we had instead.

I am spending time this November thanking God for His masterpiece in me, something that is a challenge for me, and in those around me. Let’s encourage those around us with how we see God’s workmanship in each other this month, and maybe we will start to see it and believe it in ourselves.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 NIV