Ezekiel 16:4-14; 2 Corinthians 5:21

“Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord God. (Ezekiel 16:14, NKJV)

The small village of Ghandruk, near Nepal’s Annapurna mountains, sits among steep terraces and fluttering prayer flags. Here lived Priya Tamang, now 81, known everywhere for her amazing life story.

When Priya was just three years old, she was abandoned near a Buddhist stupa (a dome-shaped Buddhist shrine used for meditation and prayer) during a severe famine. With a swollen belly and infected sores, little Priya was dying. Kiran Tamang, a young Christian teacher, visited the stupa one day to ask monks about helping the villagers. As he turned to leave, he spotted a small bundle of rags moving slightly in a corner.

“Everyone had walked past her,” Kiran later told his grandchildren. “Even the monks said they couldn’t take another orphan. But something told me I couldn’t leave her there.” Though unmarried and poor, Kiran took the girl home. He gently cleaned her wounds, fed her rice porridge, and named her Priya, meaning “beloved.” “She was so weak,” a neighbor remembered. “No one thought she’d survive. But Kiran treated her like treasure.”

Against all odds, Priya lived. Kiran married Leela, another teacher, and together they raised Priya as their daughter. They moved to Kathmandu (capital and largest city of Nepal), where Kiran’s small school became a successful Christian academy.

By eighteen, Priya had grown into a beautiful young woman, admired for her intelligence and kindness. She earned a scholarship to study medicine in Delhi (the capital city of India). However, life in the big city changed Priya. She began to believe her beauty and success were her own doing. She felt embarrassed by her parents’ simple life.

During her final year of medical school, Priya was urgently called to the hospital emergency room. A bus from Nepal had crashed, and among the injured passengers were her parents. “For three days, I sat between their hospital beds,” Priya tearfully recalled later at a church in Ghandruk. “On the night before my father died, he whispered something I’ll never forget: ‘My beautiful Priya, remember who made you beautiful.'”

Tears filled Priya’s eyes as she told the youth group, “At that moment, I remembered how my father found me dying, cleaned me up, and gave me new life.”

After her father’s death, Priya left medical school, cared for her mother, and returned to serve as a doctor in Ghandruk, where medical care was greatly needed.

“When people call me beautiful now,” Priya smiled gently, “I always correct them: ‘Any beauty you see in me is the beauty my father gave me.'”

Did You Know? In Ezekiel 16, the jewelry God gives Israel—the crown on her head—used the Hebrew word nezer, which was also used for the high priest’s crown. This crown had the words “Holiness to the Lord.” So, Israel’s beauty wasn’t just outward—it represented her special role as God’s chosen people. Similarly, when God covers us with His righteousness, it’s not just about looking good. It’s about becoming His special people—His royal priests (1 Peter 2:9).

🔥 Personal Reflection:

  • In what ways has God taken your brokenness and made something beautiful from it?
  • Where might you be tempted to think your good qualities or accomplishments come from yourself, forgetting they are gifts from God?

This week, intentionally thank God each morning for three ways He has made your life beautiful. Share your testimony with someone at work, school, or home who doesn’t yet know your story of faith.

🙏 Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for finding us when we were spiritually abandoned and giving us a new life through Your grace. Forgive us when we trust in our own beauty or achievements rather than acknowledging they are gifts from You. Help us in Waterloo Region to reflect Your beauty to those around us. Keep us humble, knowing that anything good in us comes from You alone. In Jesus’ name, Amen.