Lately, I’ve been considering my thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about my physical body. My relationship with my body was hijacked at a very young age by the selfish intrusion of an abuser. The stories of pain, confusion, and fear that my body has held continue; chapter after chapter carry the weight of disease, disability, abuse, and sorrow. I am comforted by my faith in a Savior who humbly chose to step into a physical body; weighted down by all the pain and sorrows of the world. His body bore my pain on the cross and because of His loving suffering; my broken body will be laid to rest, my soul will be free and I will jump into an eternal body that has known only joy and comfort, excitement and peace.
Bessel van der Kolk M.D is known for the title of his book which has become a powerful statement in itself; The Body Keeps The Score. Today, I notice the hope I have, that the stories of pain and suffering that my body carries will not live on for eternity! While death appeared to be a curse, or a punishment for sin, in God’s grace it was equally a promise of freedom. Because of Jesus, we can leave behind those stories when our bodies return to the ground. Our souls can be free and our future hope of a fresh, clean, whole, and perfect body is what I cling to on earth.
My compassion for this body is growing. I wake up this morning with throbbing reminders of the disability that my body carries. I speak this hope to my body. “One more day in this broken world.” That’s all I ask. Day-by-day, one day at a time; my beautifully resilient body goes on. But one day, your job will be finished and you will be laid to rest. My soul will always thank you for carrying me through my days in this broken world.
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
2 Corinthians 5:1-5 ESV
