Reprint

I'm feeling this (previous) post so much today. I'm so RIDICULOUSLY grateful for forgiveness. And am grateful for new days and new opportunities to be what God means for me to be. Enjoy the reprint!

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When you hear the words "incredible body" what comes to mind?

When you hear "incredible body" do you think Angelina Jolie? Tyra Banks? A shirtless Johnny Depp? Maybe Orlando Bloom? Or do you just think of individual body parts like shapely legs, hard chest, shredded stomach muscles, vanilla ice cream scoop breasts, or something else? Living in this media-infused society, I'd not be surprised if every one of us thought of the incredible body as a taller-than-average, perfectly-complexioned, very wealthy, famous, slender, well-muscled, specimen. Nothing wrong with any of those attributes, either. I can even say without a grain of insincerity that I'd take some of those attributes for myself. Vast wealth can be appealing, after all.

I'd like to introduce you to another incredible body. Several of them, actually.

My friend Lauren's incredible body is one of amazing strength and endurance. She's not tall, nor thin, and the girl will flat out tell you she has Fred Flintstone feet. Lauren was born with Spina Bifida, a spinal injury that could easily have rendered her severely physically disabled. Instead, Lauren cared for her body, took it to the doctor, prayed for it, recruited her family and friends to pray for it, loved it, taught it Yoga, and spoke to it so that it would know how much it was loved, even though it wasn't always healthy. Guess what: Lauren has an incredible body. And it's not going to end up severely disabled, it's going to carry children, and it's going to last her a long time. Yep, incredible.

My friend Shannon has lived through several battles with cancer. The last time she fought with it (and won) the doctors told her to say goodbye to the kids and the family and prepare to meet Jesus. When nothing else was working, Shannon took her very ill body out of the hospital where the negative doctors were working. The doctors who spoke of her as though she were already dead. And then she made her own body well. She gave it the love and care it needed, complete with raw food, raw juice, and all the other stuff she will happily tell you about. She prayed, recruited her family and friends to pray, loved it, and spoke to it, as well. Her body got well. Healed itself! And produced another beautiful son after all that. Incredible body! I know you agree.

My Very Best Friend's incredible body has given birth to the five sweetest, most beautiful, most wonderful children on this planet. I haven't seen her naked in a while, but I'm betting she's not quite as thrilled with her physical self as she was when we were 19. Again, utterly not my point. Her body is strong, and healthy, and is the actual location where the souls of her children met their own physical bodies. That's not a small miracle. Indeed, incredible.

What would my little essay be without mentioning myownself? (Again, not famous for humility, me.) In the last couple of years I've learned some great stuff about me, one of those being that I, too, have an incredible body. I've never been fatter, or cuter, in my life. I have gorgeous skin -- everywhere, the best hair sculpture north of the Mason-Dixon Line, dark chocolate eyes, and looooooooong eyelashes. I also have amazing tits. Again, oh-so not my point. The point is, everything works. Everything is healthy. Everything is even proportionate! I'm so incredibly grateful for my fuctioning, healthy, wonderful body that knows how to walk, wake, sleep, and, thank God, breathe. Incredible; even the very basics are nothing less than an absolute miracle.

When I was a child I read a book that someone had given to my father when he was a child. It had lots of short stories inside, one of which has always been with me. The daughter in the story was frequently embarrassed by the odd-looking arms and hands of her mother. She wanted her mother to hide her hands and arms from her little friends. The mother was careful to protect the child from embarrassment. However, the story eventually revealed that the mother's arms were terribly scarred from burns she sustained while saving the daughter from a house fire when she was a baby. A scarred, incredible body.

You probably already know there's another scarred, incredible body that saved us from fire, too.

The incredible body is temporarily connected to the soul, which makes even the broken, the trapped, the thoroughly undone body intensely beautiful. The soul is what makes us indispensable to eternity and to one another. I know you knew that.

Until we arrive in the eternity provided by the scarred body of God, we all have somewhere incredible to live.