American plastic surgeons are reporting a spike in clients under 30 seeking changes or “enhancements” to how they look. Many of these young people report being bullied about their appearance, usually online.  

Our incredible medical technologies make it possible to help people with physical conditions that were for much of history untreatable. This current spike, however, is less about physical conditions and more about a social contagion of ideas about beauty and identity, lies that alienate young people from their God-given bodies.  

Just as God made us male and female, He also made us with particular bodies. Because of the Fall, our bodies break down. Restoring bodies to health is one thing; carving, renovating, or “enhancing” them is another. 

People hoping to “improve” their bodies is not new. But today there is an epidemic of young people who see their bodies as a mistake instead of as a good and carefully designed gift of a loving God.