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| Julie Lebrun by Vigee-Lebrun (Wikimedia Commons). |
“Put
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh,” (Rom 13:14).
The witch in “Snow
White” spent a lot of time in front of her mirror, asking, “Mirror, mirror on
the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” She built her self-image on her attractiveness.
Today’s culture takes up this chant, unrelenting in its insistence that beauty
and sexual attractiveness are all that matters.
How easily these surface values can become our way of life.
God created our bodies as
temples of the Holy Spirit, sacramentals of procreation and means of
holiness. They are
fearfully and wonderfully made yet often
desecrated by sin or used to tempt others. God meant for us to enjoy
our bodies and our sexuality in a holy way. He reveals himself to us through
the beauty of our own bodies.
As a temple of the Holy Spirit,
there are places I can’t go, movies I can’t see, fashions I can’t wear because
they dishonor the human body, and therefore Christ’s body. Good
stewardship of my body involves keeping it healthy and strong, and dressing
attractively, yet modestly. I am to “put on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh,”< (Rom 13:14).
God created our bodies to translate his invisible
spirit into readable terms. We dress in harmony with our inner tabernacle
and thus attract others to the Lord, not to ourselves. We decorate our body
temple with the same reverence we apply in our churches to inspire worship, not
of the temple, but of the God within the temple.
We can love God with our whole being by honoring his will for our body. We can choose to use our body temple to become one body, one spirit with Jesus and not to satisfy a temporary demand of our body, whether it be adultery or gluttony. Yes, with his grace, we can choose to give our body what it needs and not obey our fleeting compulsions. We can choose to glorify God with our body.
God sees your true image reflection of his life unfolding in your body, mind, and spirit. When you look in the mirror he wants you to see him in yourself. Then you can mirror his character to the world from within your body. He wants you to brightly shine his reflection until the day you see him face to face. He meant for your body to belong entirely to him so that you will become more like him in every way possible.
How do you mirror God’s character with your body?
Do you see a glimpse of God when you look in the mirror?
Copyright 2014 Nancy Ward. Nancy blogs at JOY Alive in our hearts.
Snow White is my favorite fairy tale, because I find so much of the story of the fall and Redemption in it. The vain, jealous witch who entices with the deadly fruit, Snow White who dies after a bite of it, and then is kissed back to life by the Prince.
ReplyDeleteSo I find it curious that I've never paid much attention to the mirror. Of course! The evil queen's gaze was constantly on her Self. Thank you for presenting this so clearly, and then going on to develop it beautifully. This is a post to read and re-read.