About five years ago, I was more than 200 pounds overweight and in utter despair. I had doctors, friends, family members and strangers on the street try to help me change, try to fix me so I could be happier, healthier, etc. Although I knew in my heart that was the intention, it felt like they were trying to fix me so I would become more acceptable.
I knew my weight would eventually kill me, but what most people didn’t get, and I couldn’t even admit openly to myself is, that was ultimately what I think I was working towards. I knew I needed to do something drastic and at some point, I resigned myself to having gastric-bypass surgery. I didn’t want it, but I thought that having my body permanently altered and doing something that I thought at the time would take away my ability to enjoy the only thing in my life that I could always rely on–food, was my just punishment for letting my life get so out of control and for becoming the unacceptable person I felt I was and also felt others believed me to be.
That is, until I met my endocrinologist. My first appointment with him was January 18, 2005. I remember that day because that is the day he saved my life both literally and in an emotional sense. We discussed various issues I was having that caused me to be referred to him in the first place, and I finally brought up the surgery. I don’t remember exactly how we got around to this part of the conversation, but he encouraged me to have it. But you know what? He didn’t say that it would help me be a better person. He didn’t talk about it preventing me from dying. He talked about how losing the weight would give me my life back. He told me, this man who had just met me, that he thought I was special how I was, and I was worth saving. Not only was I worth saving, but I was cheating myself out of a quality of life that I deserved. I didn’t have to lose weight or otherwise change to deserve a quality of life. He saw me as someone who had enough value how I was to be worth fighting for that life.
I’ve never forgotten that, obviously. I’m still his patient to this day and I cherish that doctor and everyone on his staff because they all treat their patients with that same respect and love.
You’re probably wondering by now why I spent so much time babbling about that story. You might even be asking yourself if I’ve forgotten I’m writing on the Daily Jesus site and not my own blog. Nope, just stay with me.
To me, this is how God sees us. Yes, he sees us as broken, messed up individuals who are admittedly wrought with sin. But if he didn’t see us as something of value even in our brokeness, I have to think he wouldn’t have let his son die for us. He saw us, in that state, and saw something of value. He saw, and continues to see, something that is worth loving more than any human could possibly comprehend or match.
My question in my own mind becomes, what if we as humans even tried to love each other like that? Instead of treating nonbelievers as people we need to rescue, or change in order for them to become acceptable to God, why don’t we see them as people who are worthy just as they are? Their inherent value doesn’t come with claiming Christianity, it comes with them being created in the image of God. Yes, I know that the only path to heaven is to accept Christ, but I don’t believe God loves or values the lost any less just because they have not come to him yet.
This idea was further developed in my mind tonight during a sermon at church. It was ultimately about us being created in God’s image and how our marriages should become “divine portraits” of Christ. There was an aspect of the message that talked about men and women having distinct but equal roles. At this point many believers and nonbelievers alike balk and shut off their ears because they’ve been filled with drivel about women being less than men just because the Bible says the husband is to be the leader of the household.
But again, stay with me. The message showed an amazing and clarifying aspect of the husband/wife relationship that our society fails to grasp. Our equality as men and women doesn’t come from being the same. It comes from us both being created in the image of God. Note I didn’t say we are created to become God (that’s another screwy interpretation some churches spew). But by being created in the image of God, we are created in a way that creates a common bond that can never be broken.
Taking this one step further, I have to wonder about not only our missionary efforts, but our community service efforts. Many of us want to help the “least of these,” I can’t help but wonder if the attitude is all wrong? We often approach the unbelievers or the poor with the attitude of “well I sin too so I am considered just as wrong” or “I could lose everything I have too so I am not better than them because I could eventually be in the same boat.”
Instead of identifying with them in their brokeness, how much more beneficial and loving would it be if we identified with them in our mutual creation? Yes, we are all broken. But we are also all created as equal, worthy images of God.
Last 5 posts by gingerbreadnewslady
- Acceptance and getting help-not a 2-step process - September 1st, 2010
- When did you become a Christian? (I dunno) - August 23rd, 2010
- It's OK for churches to take snow days - May 7th, 2010
- Finding a healthy you (after spiritual abuse) - January 30th, 2010
- Finding a healthy church after facing spiritual abuse - December 30th, 2009
