Our Orgin Story

In the beginning, God created the world.
He created a body and breathed His breath into it to create the first person.
Out of that person He created another.
God told them that they were made in His image.
In His holiness, He looked down on them and called them “good”.
They felt no shame, because they were exactly how He intended for them to be.
// Genesis 1 & 2

Do you ever wonder what it felt like to be Eve, completely at home in her body with no concept of shame? It’s hard for me to imagine a life with no insecurity about my body, even to the smallest degree. I admit, I wouldn’t even imagine having an attitude like that today. But would God be okay with me conceding defeat so easily?

Our Future Bodies

One of the most beautiful themes in the Bible is the redemption of all creation. It’s evident throughout scripture. Jesus performed miracles on the sick, blind, deaf, or lame and in healing them, He demonstrated his power to restore all things to the way they were meant to be! Everywhere He went, He proved that it was His nature to repair the world’s most broken and sinful things to God’s original, intended design.

The truth of redemption gives us hope in what we see in Genesis 2. Because of redemption, we know that perfection is not only behind us, it is also in front of us. The shame-free wholeness that Eve felt in her body is a wholeness that we will feel when we are given the brand new bodies we are promised:

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” // Philippians 3:20-21

“Await,” that’s the tricky part. Clearly we’re not in our “glorious” bodies just yet. So, how do we wait for the bodies we’ve been promised and still love the bodies we’ve been given?

Living in the In-Between

I’ve found it helpful to remember my body’s purpose. All too often I live by the lie that my body’s only purpose is to attract the world around me. Before getting married, I constantly worried about whether I was pretty enough to be noticed. In marriage, I worry about being desirable to my husband. Then my body went through three pregnancies, and since then I’ve been struggling to regain any sense of a healthy body image. When I try to determine the value of my body on the basis of how “attractive” it is, I inevitably end up feeling insecure. Which has brought me to the point of wondering whether I need to swap out the measuring stick I’ve been using.

Let’s take another look at Eve, and what it meant for her to have a body.

An Obvious Purpose

When God first created Eve, I doubt that attracting Adam was high up on the criteria list. There weren’t any other comparable companions competing for Adam’s affection. Adam was hers because God had made them specifically for each other. And yet, she was still given a body, obviously. Perhaps God gave Eve a body as a means for her to experience the world. A way for her to see and engage with creation. She was able to speak and relate to Adam. And – beautifully – she was able to walk with God in the garden.

Eve’s body was not a signifier of her value but the means by which she was seen, known, and able to make an impact on the world around her.

Indisputable Value

God sees our bodies as valuable, not for how they look, but for what they were created to do. The most straightforward evidence of this is that the person of the Holy Spirit dwells in everyone who belongs to Christ:

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.” // 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

This verse is not talking about a future reality that will come true when our bodies are made perfect. If you are a Christian, this is true about your body at this exact moment. God purchased you at a price, which was no less than the life of Jesus Himself. He chose to dwell in you. Your body is the vessel that brings Him honour.

We can’t overstate how significant it is that God cherishes and loves our bodies. If He sees our bodies as suitable for His literal presence to dwell, then it is not only irrational, but inexcusable for us to speak poorly of them.

Daughter of God, be encouraged that you are so much more than the power that you have to catch someone’s eye or attention. The praise of people is cheap and fleeting, but God’s view of your body is proven by the price He paid and His conscious choice to make your body His most holy dwelling place.

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