I am marvelously made

Psalm 139:13 I will thank you because I am marvelously made; your works are wonderful, and I know it well.
It must be January because I see all kinds of advertisements for exercise classes health clubs, “healthy” food and how to lose weight.  The start of a new year seems to remind people about their physical being and offer a moment to change their approach to the way they live.  Sometimes it works, but in order for true change to happen, a different way of thinking must take root and be nurtured in our spirits and well as in our bodies.
Last year I participated in a 30-day walking program that offered reflections on health and wellness that used Psalm 139:13 as its premise.  At first it seemed a bit repetitive, but then I slowly began to understand the complexity of what this short verse offers.
For the most part, I have been healthy my whole life.  Like many, I often take my health for granted and don’t think much of the freedom that it offers me.  There have been times when I have been sick, even sick enough to be in the hospital, but I recovered and am none the worse for wear, even if I no longer have an appendix or gall bladder.  Perhaps it was the milestone of turning 40 that made me begin to reflect that I am marvelously made and that is something to be grateful for.
Unfortunately, I have also had a lifelong love/hate relationship with my body, mostly due to weight issues.  Too often I judge myself based on what I can’t do or what I see that isn’t what I have been programmed to accept as beautiful.  Of course these are secular standards, not God’s.  What this program helped me to believe is the premise that what God creates is wonderful and that I, being part of those works, am marvelously made.  Nothing – no diet, exercise program, surgery or other intervention – will change the fact that God’s works are already wonderful, just has God made them. 
The final part of the verse, “and I know it well,” is perhaps the most challenging. I have ignored or abused my body often and have not known it well.  It seems odd to think about my body as separate from myself as it is only through my corporeal form that I experience this life, but I treated my body as something other because I didn’t love it. 
It is a slow process to overcome such an approach to life.  I’ve had to work at “listening” to my body and recognize that body and spirit are one in the same, not separate.  I have become more attune to what my body needs and how that manifests physically, mentally and spiritually. 
One day I do hope to claim that I know my body well, but for know I give thanks for it because it is a miracle.  So is yours and I hope, regardless of any aches, pains or disappointments you have with it, you, too, will give thank that you are indeed marvelously made.
In Christ,

Rev. Valerie+

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