The strange case of the orange eyebrows

I like to blame the orange eyebrows for why I didn't meet someone to marry at BJU. After all, at freshman orientation Dr. Bob Jones III called BJU campus "the happy hunting grounds"! There was no good reason why a spindly, socially awkward redhead with crooked teeth shouldn't find a spouse just as easily as anyone else. (Haha.) It had to have been the orange eyebrows, at least originally.

When I first got to South Carolina I wasn't used to the humidity. In Fairbanks, the air is cold and dry most of the time, so dry that on the coldest, sunny winter day you can look outside and see tiny ice crystals drifting down as moisture falls out of the air. Anyway, after arriving in SC in muggy late August, my eyebrows started looking a little crazy, wavy and messy from the humidity and I decided I need something to keep them in line. Smoothing them out with a wax lip balm seemed like the perfect solution. And it was! I did that for several months. The only problem was, the lip balm I had handy was Blistex Triple Tropical fruit smoothie flavor, and it was orange. The light at my dorm room sink wasn't very good so it took quite awhile to dawn on me that I was coloring my eyebrows and the skin just above them a yellowish-orange and I looked pretty weird. It's hard to explain just how strange those orange eyebrows looked, once you saw it. Finally I figured it out, though, and quietly tossed the Blistex Triple Tropical in the trash.

I never have been able to bring myself to use Triple Tropical since then. I still like the Berry Explosion flavor, though.

Since I had that figured out, you would think second semester would look a little more hopeful on the dating front, but no. While other people came back from break sporting chic haircuts, new glasses, or spiffy sweaters they'd gotten for Christmas, I came back with a gigantic red pimple on my nose. Never before or since have I ever seen a pimple so huge. It defied any amount of makeup to make me resemble Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for two and a half weeks. But not as cute. Yes, two and a half weeks, I kept track. What pimple even lasts that long? It eventually disappeared, though, and made way for other great college moments, like casually leaning back against a rolling cart in chemistry lab, in front of a bunch of single guys.

Reflecting on God's blessings this Thanksgiving week, I am glad I can laugh at those memories now because God has given me such a wonderful family. This is a lighthearted story, but it illustrates something I've noticed over the years, that when you walk with God he has a mysterious way of healing painful memories through his mercy, goodness, and forgiveness.

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. Psalm 16:5-6

P.S. Years later I learned that in the makeup section at pretty much any store you can find a colorless gel designed to tame unruly eyebrows. Take my word for it, stay away from the fruit smoothie Blistex.