Stain-resistant

My kids and I received a pack of fresh walnuts from our local farm this week.  As we were opening them up and enjoying the sweet nutty meat, I couldn't help but notice how much care God took in protecting that nut.  I called the kids over to me and said, "Check this out, guys.  See this super shell and the way the nut is so carefully packed inside it with air pockets and everything?  That means this nut is something extremely special!"

I marveled at the care God took to protect this nut and decided that maybe I didn't give nuts enough credit or something.  We often eat nuts with breakfast with fruit, but not every day.  And not every nut is delectable for my kids.  In fact, Jayden was quite sure he didn't like walnuts.  And he's right to say that some of them taste bitter.  But the value and health benefits of the nut, whether it is bitter on the tongue or not, is still in the nut itself.  My daughter and I both enjoyed one nut after another so whenever I would find an especially sweet one, I would share it with my son so that he could develop a liking to the nuts.  Cause, yeah, sometimes I get a bitter one too, but I can still taste the original flavor behind the bitterness since I've had the good ones too.

Besides, if God is going to take this much care for these little nuts, learning to love them might not be such a bad idea.

Next thing you know, I'm taking pictures of the nut and my kids are like, "Um, why are you taking a picture of a nut?"  I had to explain the spiritual significance to them because it was suddenly so obvious to me.

As I was snapping photos, my thoughts wandered to the concept of our stain-resistant skin.  Earlier last summer, my daughter pointed to a large, open lily outside our front door and said, "Mommy, if I touch that middle part, I'm going to stain my hands.  And they will be stained forever!"

I laughed and assured her that her skin would never be stained forever.  I told her that, for some reason, God made our skin stain-resistant.  There is no oil or paint or grease or crayon or marker or pen that can stain our skin.  Even super-glue and nail polish will come off eventually. (tattoos are under the skin, not on it).

As I was pondering the significance of stain-resistant skin, this verse popped into my mind:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14

At first I was like, "Um, okay, that was an odd, random verse that just popped into my head."  I prepared to search for something else when the word "flesh" kind of stood out.

Flesh.  Isn't that like our skin?

The Word that spoke the universe into existence didn't hesitate to accept the humble form of fallen man.  He chose to become a mass of flesh.

And for the longest time I thought that Jesus was eternally reduced by becoming like one of us. And the sacrifice He made to live for eternity as part human and part divine broke my heart and made me wish we had never done something like this to Him.

But all the sudden, tonight I realize that Jesus has not been reduced.  There's no way that could happen.  He's God.  He cannot be lower than He is, which is the highest of the high.

What He did, instead, was elevate the nature of man.

We are still undeserving of such an act of eternal love, but that didn't stop Him.  He took on our form to announce our value to the rest of the universe.  Our flesh has value; not just our spirit.  He could have done all this "saving-mankind" thing in a spiritual sense.  But He totally didn't.  He went all the way, spirit and flesh and heaven and earth all came together because it is not just our spirits that have eternal value but our flesh too.  So much value that He covered it in stain-resistant skin as a sweet reminder.

For some reason, our flesh is so important, so valuable, that God gently envelops it in something that can't even be stained.  Even scars and injuries will be wiped clean when we enter into His heavenly rest.  Our flesh will be stain and scar-free forever.

But you know who won't be scar-free forever?

Jesus.

He will forever wear the scars of His sacrifice on His flesh.  It is an accepted belief that since Jesus' resurrected body maintained the scars of his crucifixion, He will have them forever (John 20:27), whereas we will have our bodies that will be perfect in heaven (1 Cor 15).

Wow, how can anyone deny that they don't have value? How can anyone deny that someone else doesn't have value?  And if every human being (covered in a layer of stain-resistant flesh) has eternal value, then why aren't we treating each other in a way that illustrates that truth?  Yes, sometimes we come across the bitter ones and we really just want to spit them out.  But if we have learned to really love all of God's creation, we will be able to detect the sweetness even among the unsweetness of each person.

It's kind of a neat, you know?  How so much of God's creation speaks about His love for humanity and His desire to live a life of love.  Even a little nut, all wrapped up in it's own kind of bubble wrap and protective casing speaks to us of our own value.  Well... it does to me, at least.