What's your best feature?

Since I am ever tempted to focus on the temporal, immediate and frivolous; I'm afraid that I have to admit that I've looked closely at Prov. 31 trying to find some inkling as to what this woman looked like. There are mentions of her clothing, but I was looking for some physical description that I could relate to. Was she fat, thin, or perfect? Did she have a figure or facial fault? Was she pretty or plain? As you probably knew already, there isn't any clue. She's spoken of as having strong arms and legs, but strength isn't an indicator of anything other than the ability to work hard. Strong legs and arms come in all shapes and sizes.

There is really only one physical feature that's repeatedly mentioned: her hands.

v13 She works willingly (or in delight)with her hands

v16 with the fruit of her hands she plants

v19 her hands work with the spindle and her hands work the distaff

v20 she reaches her hands to the poor

v31 it's the fruit(or product) of her hands that is given to her to prove her worthy of praise

I don't know about you, but I was hoping more for an excuse to go out and get an expensive manicure. I feel certain that that's not the point being expressed here. I guess the question is, if God were going to describe you, would your hands and the fruit they produce be your most striking feature? So striking in fact that no physical description would be necessary, everyone would already know who was being spoken of.

Contrast that with another Proverbs woman found in Prov. 14:1 whose hands are also mentioned. "The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish tears it down with her own hands". This woman will have no works to show, because she's too busy tearing things down. Why? I honestly don't know. Perhaps to remake them the way she wants them, perhaps because she's impossible to satisfy or please; but no matter what the reason, the end result is the same. She has nothing to show for her work but ruins. Her hands were not her best feature, but her worst.

As an aside here it's important to remember both the definition of wisdom, and the definition of foolishness from Scripture. We all bring our own ideas when we come to a word or concept, and it's important to use God's definition and not our own. Jesus defined both terms in Mt. 7:24-27:

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Now everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." NKJV

From this passage it's clear that wisdom is hearing what God says and doing it. By contrast, foolishness is then defined for us as hearing what God says and not doing it. Which woman's hands do you want to have? the wise or the foolish? the productive or the destructive?

This changes my perspective on what my best feature should be. Time to work on having beautiful hands, hands that are wise and productive.