Thursday Read: The Body You Didn't Choose

You opened your eyes this morning in a body you didn't select. You didn't choose your height, your metabolism, your facial features, your body type, your physical capabilities, or your health challenges. For some, this body feels like home. For others, it feels like a prison - too tall, too short, too heavy, too thin, wrong shape, wrong abilities, wrong everything.

Modern culture sends relentless messages about bodies. Social media showcases filtered, edited, posed versions of bodies that don't actually exist. Advertising promises that the right products will fix what's wrong with you - which assumes there is something wrong with you. Diet culture preaches that thin equals valuable. Fitness culture suggests that strength equals worth. You're bombarded daily with evidence that your body isn't enough.

Into this noise, Scripture makes a stunning claim: "You are fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14). Not "you will be wonderful once you fix what's wrong." Not "you could be wonderful with the right diet and exercise plan." You are - present tense, current condition - wonderfully made. God looked at you and declared your creation wonderful.

This doesn't mean bodies don't matter or that health isn't important. Paul called the body a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), indicating bodies deserve care and respect. Taking care of your health isn't vanity - it's stewardship. But there's a difference between stewarding your body as God's temple and punishing it for not matching impossible standards.

Jesus walked around in a human body. He got tired (John 4:6), hungry (Matthew 4:2), and thirsty (John 19:28). His body could be wounded and killed. When he rose from the dead, he still bore the scars from his crucifixion (John 20:27). Even resurrection didn't erase the marks of his suffering. This tells us something important: bodies matter to God, and even glorified bodies retain evidence of lived experience.

You live in a body that bears marks of your story - scars from injuries, changes from aging, evidence of illnesses faced, signs of life lived. Culture tells you to hide these marks, fix these flaws, erase these imperfections. But what if they're not flaws? What if your body's story - including its struggles - is part of what makes you wonderfully made?

This matters especially in February, when fitness marketing ramps up to capture people discouraged by failed January resolutions. You'll see ads promising transformation if you just buy this program, follow this influencer, try this diet. Some of this is helpful - movement and nutrition matter. But much of it is predatory, profiting from your dissatisfaction with your body while promising results that photographs don't deliver.

Here's what God says about your body: it's good (Genesis 1:31), it's a temple (1 Corinthians 6:19), it will be resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:42-44), and it's wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). Not eventually wonderful pending improvements - currently wonderful despite imperfections. Your body isn't the enemy. It's not something to hate into submission or punish into compliance. It's the physical space where you experience God's presence, serve God's purposes, and live out your actual life.

This doesn't mean ignoring health or avoiding good stewardship. It means rejecting the lie that your body is only valuable when it matches cultural standards. It means caring for your body from a place of gratitude rather than shame. It means measuring health by stewardship, not comparison. Your body is fearfully and wonderfully made - treat it accordingly.