At war with our bodies. . .

The other day I watched a video telling how you can have a metal thing inserted just under your sin which will provide a raised symbol on your skin.  Think of the possibilities!  It is nothing new but our age has decided to improve upon the past.  The body is for us mostly a canvas for our self-expression.  From the ink we put into the skin to the hairs we permanently remove to the plastic surgery which changes our appearance, we find it almost irresistible.  Some will say why am I so upset about it all and tell me there are worse things.  Of course there are worse things but that does not mean living at war with our bodies is a good thing.  In fact, that is exactly what it is -- at war with our bodies, we are at war with God who fearfully and wonderfully knit us together in our mother's womb.

Looks and dress were once said to be the realm of the superficial.  You take off the wig and put the clothes in the hamper and are left with the real you.  But we are not content with what is left.  We think we can improve upon what God has made.  The heart of plastic surgery is the pursuit of the perfect.  We think God has made us flawed and we must fix it.  Except that what we think is perfect or a perfect improvement is laughable.  Age comes along and destroys all our creative work.  It is as if the canvas in the frame sags and bloats and with it the image upon that canvas.  Styles change and clothes change and hair changes but what we do to our bodies is more permanent than this.  It is not easy to undo what we have done -- the ink we have inserted into the skin, the holes we have put into our flesh, the stuff we have injected into our bodies, the parts we have cut off or replaced or tightened up.  It is a dangerous thing to treat the body as a canvas and do with it as we please.  Unlike Etch-A-Sketch, you cannot shake it off. 

On a large level, we have decided that God makes mistakes and so we can be born women into men's bodies and men into women's bodies.  We have the technology.  We can fix it.  But you cannot cure gender dysphoria with surgery and hormones.  On the smaller scale, we have decided that the skin is where we can express ourselves except that tastes change and what we thought was cool becomes hideous to others and to ourselves over time.  We are still at war with ourselves, with God, and with His creative will and purpose in making us in His own image, redeeming us that we might live under Him now in this world and eternity in the world to come.  We want what we want and not what God wills.  That was Eden's curse.  We got what we wanted only to find it was not so great.  The earth brought forth its bounty but only after backbreaking labor and the womb delivered up new life amid the tension of life and death, screams and pain, joy and depression.  When will we awaken to the fact that we do not know what we want and this is why we need a God who is not tempted into the moment to make eternal decisions.

I once had someone ask me if their resurrected body would have their tattoos.  Really?  That is our concern?  Like those who tried to trip up Jesus with the cruel story of a woman who had to marry 7 brothers, we are constantly trying to take it with us when we die.  Jesus did not disdain marriage by admitting that it is of this world and not eternity.  What?  No NICUs in heaven?  Will I be raised to look like my perfect age?  What is that?  I think I am 27 but my mind tells me I am 67 and my body tells me I am 107 -- which is the perfect age?  God is trying to set us free from such foolishness but we fight hard to hold onto it.  Like Israel sneaking the amulates of idols with them wherever they went, God is trying to loosen our grip on ourselves just long enough so that we can hold onto eternity.  In the process, we are fighting Him every step of the way so that God has to daily recall us to Himself through repentance and daily affirm the healing power of His forgiveness that restores us fallen souls to His side.  There was a moment when a pagan style amulate was placed upon the altar in St. Peter's in the Vatican.  Francis had it put on that altar.  We just cannot let go -- even a pope!  Before we laugh, how many of us have a little ditty of Santa kneeling at the manger?  At war with our bodies and with the God who made and redeemed us -- soul and body -- we always seem to fall on the side of the moment over the everlasting.  Our only fortune is the God who is rich in mercy and who seeks the lost even when they wander out of His fold on their own legs and because of their own stupidity.  Thanks be to God!