Our bodies are amazing gifts from a loving God. What would it take for you to live well in your body this season?
It is a wonder at just how much
our bodies are a gift from God because it has been ours from the day we were
born. It is a constant, though it may change with each year, as the numbers on
the scale fluctuate and lines form across the skin, it is still ours and still
holding us together. It is full of functions and protocols and systems that I
cannot name but God knows. He knows what needs to do what and he created them
to be so.
I cannot pretend to know the body or biology
because I do not. Biology was one of my least favorite subjects in school,
though now I find interesting in new light with God as the creator of it all.
But it is still systems and more functions than I can comprehend and have long forgotten
since my freshman high school class, where we dissected a worm and then frog
and culminated with a rat that we cut the toe nails off, one accidentally
landing in the hair of the girl in front of us. So many parts, teeny and
seemingly useless but each part playing an important role.
I once heard of a man being so engrossed in
thanksgiving to God that he named each system in his body, thanking God for
each part. Each part that made up his body, that allowed it to move and flow
and inhale and exhale and be alive. It sounds so grandiose to be able to do such
a thing, to know each inner part and thank God for each one and it is but for
me, I am perfectly content with naming the things I can see and remember; he
knows that is not my area of expertise but thankfulness is developed none the
less.
And I think that is what loving my body this
season looks like.
Loving my body this season is taking it in for
all its worth, thanking God for mobility and for each limbs working properly.
It is taking the time to thank God for my feet that walk effortlessly
around the house picking up toys for the eighty second time today and for my
hands that scrub dish after dish, colored in each shade of the rainbow and for
my eyes that have witnessed each season of growth and maturity in my children. Thanksgiving
for ears that hear them call my name in the middle of the night when I am sound
asleep and thanksgiving for arms to hug and comfort.
It is about remembering to love the skin I
have been created in.
Here's to bodies and living well.
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This is part of a 365 day blogging series through Savor by Shauna Niequist. If you would like to blog along, whether daily or weekly, I would love to have you for the journey; be sure to link back to the post. And if you are not a blogger, you can join along, too. Just leave your response and answers in the comments.