Welcome to The Faithful Choices Podcast Episode #1: Loving the Skin I’m In
Hello everyone. I've been out and about this summer. My youngest daughter begged me to focus on them and I decided that would be the best use of my summer, but you weren't far from my mind. I've been praying for you. How has your summer treated you?
We recently visited with family from another state. The instant response to my children's bronze and slightly reddened bodies was how much they look like California girls. I guess that's what regular sun and swimming do to a person.
Drew Barrimore once said, "My whole life, I've wanted to feel comfortable in my skin. It's the most liberating thing in the world." Oh, she said such a mouthful.
Skin is a silly thing really. As my daughter starts school, her physical science class has her talking about open and closed systems. Our skin encloses our body systems. It's the package we come in, much like the wrapper on a candy bar or a zip lock baggy.
And yet, we obsess over our package. I know I have. We want a certain tone, such as a deep sun-kissed tan. We dream of small pores with light freckling or no freckling. As we grow, we tug and pull at it with contraptions and lotions in the effort to keep it as springy as possible. Creasing decreases our self-esteem.
I've known some extra-ordinarily beautiful people. This sense of skin preservation crosses all boundaries.
No matter how often we tell ourselves that beauty is only skin deep, we continue to put more and more of our hard earned money into the beauty industry. We clearly care about the depth of our skin. I think it's because of that amount of care, many of us long to feel comfortable in our own skin.
As a believer in Christ, maybe I'm not supposed to think about beauty and such things. Maybe I'm supposed to only search our inner depth for growth. But, I'd feel rather shallow if I avoided such a huge part of the body. According to a U.S. World and News Report by Dr. Bernadine Healy, it's the largest organ in (or rather, on) our bodies.
If this is so, then it would have been included in God's preferred organizational chart, known as the body. The Bible describes the church as "the body of Christ." The verses following this reference mention feet or hands. I wonder if the writer could take this chart even further.
Are some of us the skin in the body of Christ, which is His church?
According to the article mentioned above, the skin does much more than make us look good. It serves many roles.
Skin....
1. P
