Shedding Skin

Welcome to Monday Manna, hosted by Joanne at An Open Door. Be sure to visit.

Once upon a time I was young and skinny. My aunt, who always took me shopping on my yearly visits, continually complained that I had nothing to "hang" clothes on. These days she admonishes me to take weight OFF. I used to complain to God about my "flesh," considering it to be unattractive. Thankfully I have long since come to terms with my imperfect physical flesh.

I wonder if Jesus ever felt uncomfortable in his humanity? He was tempted in every way that we can be tempted—so perhaps that included wanting to crawl out of His skin.

John 1:14 says: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling place among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Somehow it is difficult to imagine Jesus with a growling stomach, with sore feet, or an itchy beard. I can hardly conceive of Him sweating. Did his childhood friends give him a hard time about being skinny or fat, or not quite as good at sports as they were? Isaiah tells us that He wasn't handsome (Isaiah 53:2). Did the teenage girls make fun of him because He wasn't "cute?"

My skin is the only skin I've ever had, but the Son of God put perfection behind Him to take on physical imperfection. In the spiritual sense He was perfect because Jesus was without sin even though every possible appeal to sin was made to His physical, emotional, mental, spiritual being (Hebrews 4:15).

The Lord took on my "skin" and along with it, all its weaknesses and needs. He may have been tempted to set it aside and return to perfection but for me, and for you, He hung on to that flesh until there was no longer any need for it, until the job was done.

And to prove that old saying "beauty is only skin deep," the flesh the Lord took on was wrapped around something far more precious—grace and truth—the true test of how deep beauty runs.