In San Francisco there is a series of Victorian row houses known as the Painted Ladies. They are near-identical wooden structures elaborately festooned in bright colors. Sometimes called Postcard Row, they are a beautiful addition to a city that is in one of the most beautiful locations in the world.
We can also find similar groupings of Victorian houses in Baltimore, St. Louis, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Toledo, and Cape May, New Jersey.
It’s good to be a Painted Lady, to be arrayed in the brilliance of the best the world has to offer, and to attract the admiration of everyone everywhere.
To hold such beauty in our hands comes at a high cost, though. In 2010, the largest of San Francisco’s Painted Ladies came on the market at just under $4 million. At 4,600 square feet, that amounts to nearly $900 a square foot.
1 Peter 3:3-4 admonishes us:
“Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.”
1 Timothy 2:8-10 pulls men into the mix:
“I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.”
1 John 2:16 reminds us:
“For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.”
God made the world, and he infused all the beauty of his magnificence throughout all he brought into being. He created the San Francisco topography that is so beautiful. He formed the compounds in the paint that covers the Painted Ladies. He enabled the hand of man to lift up buildings that are still admired today. So, then, if God made the very things that make the world beautiful, why are we told to refrain from becoming Painted Ladies?
The answer is found in Romans 12:2 which says:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Jesus came to this world that we might have life and have it more abundantly. We find that life by striving to become more like him. When our time and money are consumed by creating more and more beautiful Painted Ladies, how much time is left over for following God?
Our Painted Ladies are seen in the time we volunteer feeding the hungry, the mission trips we attend, and the times we step up to the plate to help out our neighbors when they are in need. Our Painted Ladies are festooned with the hours we spend preparing for teaching our Sunday school classes, our Wednesdays volunteering in the church nursery, and the Saturdays we put into cleaning the sanctuary.
We want the world to look at us and see Postcard Row, the most beautiful Painted Ladies for Christ out there. There are a lot of us, too, in Portland, in Buffalo, in Phoenix, and Houston, Atlanta, and St. Petersburg. We’re everywhere, making the world more beautiful because of the Christ we serve.
When Jesus transforms us, the world will admire what we have become.
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