Excuse me Ma'am your soul is showing! (Copy)
The other day my son asked me out of the blue, "Mom, wouldn't it be cool if we were inside out and our guts were showing?" I replied, "Uh, no... then everyone could see what I ate, and what is wrong with me, and that would be embarrassing." (to say the least! ) But, of course, it got me thinking.
What if I were inside out, and everyone could see my soul? What if instead of this fleshy facade encasing the real me… the real me had to go first? No hiding behind my human fortress!
Just Me.
We take such diligent care of these vessels of clay we live in. We work out, diet, dye our hair, get facials and plastic surgery, and obsess over every little blemish and bad hair day, then present it to the world for judgment as who we are and how we're doing.
It’s our calling card.
Perhaps if my soul were exposed and I had no exterior to hide behind, and it became my calling card, I might spend more time tending to it. Because although the body is alterable it is slowly decaying. The soul, however, can live forever; and has the potential to get better with time.
Sometimes my soul feels like my alter ego, the unrefined me, that I don't show most people. I imagine She looks like a wounded confederate soldier, bandaged and limping home, hardened and sun-drenched. On other days she is a resilient and innocent 8-year-old, running in the sun without a care. I’m careful to show the world a curated version of the two.
I love how God created the human body with the ability to "heal itself" leaving hardly a scar. But what about the soul, so tender and raw and exposed?
No, son, I don’t want to be inside out!!
The soul is designed to commune with God, reflect His character, and return back to Him at the end of its journey.. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t have a built-in self-healing mechanism so that we turn to Him to heal our wounds, refresh our souls and restore our joy, making us rely on Him to become more like Him.
When we spend time with the One who created us, the one who loves us, understands us, and can heal us…we are made whole.
When we tend to our soul with as much diligence as we do our outer appearance, it grows and flourishes, and in the presence of a holy God… we are made whole.
There is no more unforgiveness, no bitterness, no scars or pain, no wounds, and no hiding. Just the evidence of a life lived beholding His glory and the image of Christ reflecting back at Him and shining like a bright light for all to see.
This is our intended calling card, folks! Christ in us the hope of glory! Sharing that hope with others. I am very thankful that my body keeps me comfortable and unexposed as I walk around this earth. I am also grateful for the person inside that God does not leave wounded, alone or unprotected but nurtures and communes with until He calls me home.
I hope that the long-term effects of a life lived this way will be "insides" that shine so bright we would not mind living inside out!
But we all, with open faces beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
2 Corinthians 3:18