The Beauty Of A Life Lived

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

“Mom, can I have some of the ornaments you made when you were first married?” I asked.

I winced a bit on my end of the phone call, certain she was going to razz me (and deservedly so) for having so often scoffed at her “ugly” hodgepodge Christmas tree in my teens and early twenties.

She chuckled a bit too gleefully before graciously telling me I could have any ornaments I wanted, as long as they didn’t belong to my brothers. And so, after a few years of color-coordinated trees, I traded my trendy decorations for my mom’s tradition. I was grateful to swipe a couple of memory-laden items for my own hodgepodge tree.

As I was bent over my bathroom vanity, ruefully considering a gray hair I hadn’t noticed before, the Holy Spirit brought my love for those mismatched ornaments to mind as an alternative perspective on growing older. Just as my carefully trimmed tree has been replaced by one that will never win a design award but brings delight with its myriad of memories, my body is no longer that of an eighteen-year-old girl.

And while I want to look lovely, I’m learning to define loveliness as fully embracing this body that has seen me through my life thus far. That thick, double cesarean scar? It memorializes the sacred moments Aaron and I first met our babies in a sterile operating room. And the fine lines gathering in the corners of my eyes are testament to ten thousand smiles during ten thousand happy moments. Those scars or imperfections reminding me of darker moments in my story? They mark my survival, my overcoming of something difficult.

I know it’s hard to go against a lifetime of the world telling us that to grow older is to grow less lovely, but consider today’s verse. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, belonging to God, bought at the highest of costs: the willing, sacrificial death of his beloved Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Let’s honor God by seeing ourselves through his eyes, finding beauty in the wrinkles and scars as tangible reminders of cherished moments or perseverance through difficult seasons.

Julie

Today’s Act of Gratitude

Stand before a mirror, thanking God for something about your reflection that you’ve previously criticized. Make it a habit to do this each time you look in a mirror.