The Gift of Flesh

Read: John 1:1-18
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. (v. 14)

I grew up with a belief that somehow flesh was just evil, sinful, corrupted, no good. I heard it around me, at church and even in Scripture when I didn’t understand the bigger picture. I struggled with the competing message that we were to love ourselves and our neighbors, that we were fashioned in the womb with purpose. I felt caught in a never-ending battle between these seeming polar opposites, between flesh and my faith — anything short of perfection was probably not going to be good enough to gain God’s favor.

As an adult, that deep, internal conflict has been challenged. “Our battle is not against flesh and blood,” says Paul, turning our attention from what we see to the unseen world (Eph. 6:12 HCSB). “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” says Adam when God, the great Creator, fashions Eve (Gen. 2:23). “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” says John. God gave us flesh in the garden, and recommitted to flesh by wrapping his Son in it and giving him to us as well.

This flesh, this tabernacle, is a gift that houses other gifts God has given. It is weak, and even corrupted, yet through its cracks, the light of the world spills out. Someday we will be done with it, but for now, we have this treasure in jars of clay, says Paul, so that others know the light isn’t coming from us (2 Cor. 4:7). And if Jesus was willingly wrapped in flesh to show the world what God was like, I will thank God for the gift of flesh, and trust he will use mine too. 

Prayer: Giver of good gifts, pour your light into this broken jar of clay, so that it might overflow into this world you love, a world of flesh and blood.