Like so many women, I spend a lot of energy navigating a world that still harbors assumptions about my capabilities and inclinations because I am female. I remain appalled that we culturally presume women’s sexuality is the first “gift” to be brought to the relational and economic table, and I cringe as my sisters and I fixate, with money and time, on making ourselves beautiful according to cultural norms.
The cost is high to us. We can so easily come to hate our bodies or discount those few whose DNA predisposes them to fit that cultural norm. As we age, we fade from the culture’s view, though we may work overtime to stave off the gray, hold in the gut and tighten the skin. Our relationship with our bodies can even become hostile, self-punishing in thought and deed, or neglectful and resigned.
In these places, I and we need to repent, that we might see and hear again the wonder of your covenant with us in our very flesh. Our bodies, in all their varieties, are a product of your imagination, O God. Every breath is a miracle when we stop to think about it.
This message is adapted from “Amen” written by Catherine Malotky that first appeared in the September 2018 issue of Gather magazine.
Today we remember Agnes, martyr, who died around 304. We also observe the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.
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