SKIN

DON'T YOU KNOW THAT YOU YOURSELVES ARE GOD'S TEMPLE AND THAT GOD'S SPIRIT DWELLS IN YOUR MIDST? IF ANYONE DESTROYS GOD'S TEMPLE, GOD WILL DESTROY THAT PERSON; FOR GOD'S TEMPLE IS SACRED, AND YOU TOGETHER ARE THAT TEMPLE // 1 CORINTHIANS 3:16-17

As humans, are we allowing ourselves to accept our own humanity? I've witnessed so many Christians over the years talk about what it is to be like God. They say we need to take up our spiritual selves and leave behind our physical embodiment. They bring up the verse in the bible where it talks about being perfect, just like our heavenly Father, "YOU THEREFORE MUST BE PERFECT, AS YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER IS PERFECT" // MATTHEW 5:48

We place so much emphasise on the spiritual aspects of Christianity, but we hardly ever seem to mention the secular parts of our lives. We've created a separation between Christianity and life. This is something that God never intended. We should be using everything that God provided for us, rather then selecting the things we believe to be good. We as Christians have become too quick to judge, and we've began calling some things evil that God calls good. I believe we've missed the point. Christianity shouldn't be seen as a religion, but a lifestyle. It's not something we choose to become each Sunday, it's who we are in every aspect of our life, and that includes in our own humanity. Our own humanity is the key to God's whole story. God became human through His own son, Jesus, and through Jesus, God brought salvation to the world. He used His own Son to deliver the world back to Him. Jesus is the key, but He wasn't just a spiritual being, He was also an embodied human being. God used Jesus' humanity to fill the gap between heaven and earth.

Jesus' body is His story. He was broken, crushed and scarred. He experienced every aspect there is to be human so that He could say He knows our suffering. His scars and wounds are authentication and show the reality of who He is and what He did for us. He embraced the full meaning of what it is to be human. He publicly carried His scars using them as a visual display of God's goodness and His promise of forgiveness and resurrection. Jesus carries these wounds into eternity with Him. His resurrection didn't erase the proof of His pain because it's these scars that show how strong He truly is. They're part of His perfection. This is how I interpret what it means to be perfect like our heavenly Father. To embrace every aspect of our humanity and show our scars just like Jesus did. We are called to be humans because we are all image bearers of God,

GOD CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE, IN THE IMAGE OF GOD HE CREATED HIM; MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM // GENESIS 1 :26-27

Another word so similar to humanity is humaneness. Synonyms for this are words like compassion, kindness, consideration, understanding and sympathy. This is what humanity is about, and this is also what it means to be an image bearer of God. Being compassionate, kind and understanding to everyone. Every culture, religion, race and gender. We need to learn to feel other people's pain, just like Jesus feels ours. We need to learn to embrace diversity because God loves every nation, culture and tribe. EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED // ROMANS 10:13 Let's embrace what it means to be human, and be proud of our skin, even with all the scars.