Look like a baby!

I think it is safe to say that the above Walmart commercial is one of my absolute favorite commercials that I've ever seen. It’s adorable! These little girls actually think that this anti-aging face cream will help their grandpa look younger.

Though we chuckle at the naivety of the two girls, we must take a step back and ask ourselves if those children remind us of anyone – ourselves, perhaps? Do we buy into the hope that certain cosmetics products will give us a younger look or a better version of ourselves? We certainly do, seeing as the cosmetics industry is booming nowadays. There is no denying that people are concerned about how they portray themselves to society.

Let’s take, for example, a specific product that is particularly popular amongst women: hope in a jar.

This is literally called hope in a jar. It comes from a brand called Philosophy, sold nationwide in big makeup stores such as Sephora and Ulta. The brand carries a number of interesting products, or rather products with interesting names, such as “purity made simple”, “full of promise”, and “miracle worker”. Although there are numerous products we can discuss, we’ll narrow our focus onto hope in a jar.

Hope in a jar is sold for as little as $15.00 at 0.5oz and as much as $110.00 for 8oz. I guess hope in a jar can be pretty costly these days. On the philosophy website, hope in a jar claims to have antioxidant protection, as well as to improve skin texture and tone. To me, it sounds like the claims of many other moisturizers in the market. But to others, the product is their holy grail. Hope in a jar has achieved a good-standing status of popularity in the cosmetic world, and with its high price, it makes me wonder why people are so faithful to this product that claims very similar promises that other brands would make. It is really that much different from other moisturizers? Is it really “hope in a jar”?

What’s more interesting to me is the “philosophy” that is written for the product (each product of philosophy has their own written philosophy statement written on the front): “where there is hope there can be faith. where there is faith miracles can occur.” It sounds just like a nice, carefully-chosen set of words to me, but to others, it rings truth – enough to make their purchase. In buying “hope in a jar,” customers are placing high hopes in a jar. Perhaps this marketing trick for philosophy works for many others, but it has yet to work on myself. To customers, they are buying more than a moisturizer or more than the highly respected brand itself – they are buying miracles.

I thank God we don’t have to be like philosophy customers and put our hope in something so temporary. Who puts hope in a jar? Christians shouldn’t! Romans 5:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” We have hope given to us from God Himself! Because we believe exactly what John 3:16 states, we can look forward to someday be with Him for all eternity in heaven. But in the meantime, because we have this hope, we don’t have to live putting our hope in other things because God has taken care of where that hope should be put. He knows that if we put our hope in Him, these earthly things won’t matter. What’s better than our hope of being with Him forever and ever?  No face cream will ever be better than that, that’s for sure!