I have been known to buy lipstick simply because I'm intrigued by its name--Barely Nude, Just So, Moxie Be Bold, Arm Candy, Persimmon Canyon or Dragon Fruit. Is there such fruit?  Yes.  And it's as bright as the pink shade of that tube of lipstick I bought at the CVS without knowing what color I was getting.  Lipstick is comforting.

Before work the last thing I do is apply lipstick. I select a shade and glide the creamy silkiness across my lips. The vibrancy of color brightens my face and buoys my mood.  Sometimes I write a note to my husband and kiss the paper, the lip print an authentic "sealed with a kiss."

Just this week I listened to a Ted Talk.  A brave woman spoke of helping other women in war zones.  When she asked the women living in those dangerous territories some of the supplies they wanted, she was surprised to hear that one of the requested items was lipstick.  "If we're going to get shot, let those who would shoot us or bomb us know they are killing beautiful women." 

While I don't live in a war zone, thank God, having simple things to make one feel better, to feel comforted, is a grace in itself.  I think of coffee in the morning, the burbling coffee pot, (that sound in itself a consolation), the wafting fragrance of French Vanilla, that first hot sip I feel all the way down.  The soothing and melodic sound of the Baroque station on Pandora when I'm typing report after report at work.  The nice man at the post office who let me use his pen and didn't make me get out of line.  Who was patient and waited for me.  The child who waved at me in the grocery store and said "hi."  That smile. That sweetness. Pen and paper--a verdant comfort zone suffused with ink and emotion.  The morning sky--an acreage of clouds and streaks of pink more splendid than dragon fruit.

God steals in and comforts--just when we need it.  When we're tired.  When we're about to give up.  When we're about ready to lose it with our partner--when they don't comfort--can't comfort.  It's the Holy Spirit, the great comforter, that genius comforter, that creative comforter who knows what works to bring life to our faint hearts.  Even lipstick in a war zone.