July 13, 2022
The Almost Daily will be on Summer Vacation until August 8th. But fear not! You will receive a devotional each Monday through Friday from the excellent Mockingbird Devotional entitled Daily Grace. Enjoy! - Paul Walker
[T]hen the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)
In this ancient passage, God, like a sculptor, gathers the dirt in his hands and shapes the first man from it. He breathes his own breath into Adam’s lungs, gives Adam life from God’s own life. Through these steady actions, we see how dedicated God is to each one of us; the human body is precious and hand-crafted. And no matter your shape, size, weight, or height, you are sustained by the breath of the divine.
Day to day, of course, you may not feel so glorious. You may feel more like a robot that is constantly malfunctioning. I know I do. Like Kramer from Seinfeld, I seem to always hit the doorframe when I pass through it, or stub my toe on a table leg. My limbs seem out of control. My emotions are even less compliant. When I look in the mirror, I’m not always happy with what I see. Inundated with media of the beautiful and handsome, it is easy to feel ungainly by comparison, not-enough.
In the ancient world, only the strong survived. In Sparta, the physically weak were killed by their mothers, and disability was a disgrace. In ancient Greece, physical perfection and beauty indicated a heightened morality. Our world still entertains this ideology, but it’s far from Christian; Christianity values the opposite. Jesus blessed the poor, the meek, the sick, and the suffering. And body image was so unimportant that the scriptures never even mention what Jesus looked like. His skin color, muscle size, fat level, choice of clothes: Apparently no one cared enough to write this stuff down.
All that mattered was that he had a body and that it was broken for us. Through this sacrifice, Jesus crushes the serpent that whispers shame into our ears. In shame, Adam and Eve covered their naked bodies with fig leaves; gently Christ says you have nothing to hide.
My prayer for today is that you will take a deep breath, let go of whatever devilish fig leaves you cling to—even for a moment—and live.
[CJ Green, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]
