What if you had a better body?
Some of us young adults wish we had a different body. Imagine you did!
Think of all the things you could do with a mind like a supercharged computer, with unlimited ram, and a pair of microphones, and a speaker, and a pair of extendable arms with five smaller extensions on each—like fingers—and a communication system which enabled instant messaging from the supercomputer to the tippy-tip end of your fingers.
And what if computer, mic, arms, and fingers were all connected with a frame-like structure with grooves and rivets, and what if the frame-like structure was connected to a pair of longer extensions that could make the whole hulking thing walk and run and sprint and jump.
And what if the speaker could, I don’t know, sing?
And what if the lips that kept the mouth closed could open, and what if they could be pulled back into a beautiful thing—let’s call it a smile. And what if they could kiss another beautiful person?
And what if the pair of microphones could hear amazing truths about reality that could make the whole frame shake and what if they could pick up other truths that would make little drops of water drip from the eyes.
Oh, I forgot to tell you about the eyes. There’s two. And when you look into them, you can see someone’s heart.
And what if inside the frame and the brain and the blood, there lived a person, who, as you know, can live forever. and what if that person looked like God. Indeed, what if you did!
…
What would you do with a body like that?
Would you use that supercomputer to download mean thoughts about others, and would you use those mics to hear mean things, and would you use that speaker of yours to belch all the hurtful things to another person?
Would you use the extendable arms to punch another person or point at them with a long pointy finger to accuse him, mock him, shame him, until his face got red and his eyes dripped water and his beautiful sun smile went down.
Maybe you would make a long whip with your clever mind and clever hands. A whip with prongs and shards of glass and sharp things and strip another person’s back and go whiz with the whip to make the other person shriek.
And maybe your clever computer would tell your hands how to make a wreath of thorns and twist it on his head.
And then, you would discharge your saliva on his face.
And maybe you would take him to a stake with a cross beam and take a handful of spikes and pin him down: POUND, POUND, POUND. And then you’d hoist the cross up and use your big smile to sneer at him, and use your big mouth to laugh at him, and use your big heart to hate him.
What if you did all that to the One who gave you a body and made the sunshine so you could smile. Imagine that!
…
And what if he said, “Take eat, this is my body which is broken for you.” And what if he gasped from the cross—to a very bad robber man—“today you will be with me in paradise.” And what if he prayed to his Father to forgive the sneering, spitting, smiling, you.
And what if all his life long he knew you’d do it to him and his body. What if he healed lepers anyway.
…
Maybe, maybe your heart would start to throb and maybe butterflies would start to fly in your stomach and maybe you would give 100% of your body to him.
And maybe you would use those big extendable arms to help someone, hold someone, hug someone. Someone who was only as dirty a leper as you once were.
And maybe you would use those mics to hear beautiful truths that would make your whole frame shake. And maybe, right after hearing those truths—let’s say, justification—you would—I don’t know—sing? Like at the very tippy-top of your volume settings.
And do you think you might even, once in a while, only when convenient, timidly, mention His name to someone who could really use His help?
And you probably would take that stupid-computer out of your pocket—which is causing all this negative body theology—and you would use your super-computer to plan the demize of it. Idea: grind it up into a billion pieces with your teeth and throw it into the brook Kidron.
And maybe you would hate all the things that could hurt your beautiful body which He bought with His own blood.
And maybe one day you would give your body to someone in love—to picture what He did for you.
Imagine that.
What will you do with the body that you have?
By Joseph Dick
Young Calvinists 