If God created man in his image and chose to make man soul and body, then there must be a way in which our bodies, as well as our souls, reflect the image and glory of God. We live in a fallen world and we are blind people, corrupted by sin. Therefore, our ideas of what true beauty is often seem broken and in need of serious repair. We have indulged our minds and hearts with the images that the world says is beauty, and we have lost our ability to recognize true beauty in people. For some of us, locating beauty in others will be something we have to practice doing. To see it in ourselves, we will have to pray that God will give us eyes to see what he sees.

Throughout culture, we are provided images of beauty and are subconsciously told that we need to change our own bodies to reflect these images in order to obtain beauty. I do believe that the body is to be a platform for pursuing beauty and that Christians—both men and women—should be in pursuit of this God-given quality. My real disagreement with the world lies not in the pursuit of beauty but in the image of beauty that it tells us to pursue. As Christians, we are called to pursue an image, although the image we pursue is not a stone statue (or in our culture, a picture of some woman in a magazine or on TV), but the flesh and blood image of the living God, Jesus Christ.

We must see that our bodies have been called into the service of the living God. They are called to serve the Lord by being his image in a world that in many places and in many ways does not recognize its true King. The body is a gift to each of us over which we are stewards for his purposes. But as simple as it sounds, I had really never considered my body as something I was a steward over, as something I could either use for God’s purposes or my own. One of the most important things I want us to walk away with is a renewed sense or even a first-time understanding that our bodies are not our own. God has purposes for our bodies in his kingdom.

It is significant that God chose to make man with a body. He did not just create souls that floated around the garden. After the creation of man and woman, God declared creation to be “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Consider Adam’s poetic reaction to Eve: “This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23)! Adam identifies the gloriously human Eve—finally a suitable partner!—based on her physical quality, her bone and flesh. In some way her body tells him that she is his correspondent, his suitable partner. To be human, then, is to have a body. To be sure, we are more than just our bodies, for the breath of God has breathed life into each of one of us, but we certainly are not less than our bodies or indifferent to them. We are body and soul, so intricately woven together that when the two are separated, death ensues and man is no longer the living being that God created.

Everything about us physically was seen beforehand by God and created to be that way. Hair and eye color, body type, tall or short—he knows what he is doing and does not create anything that does not suit his purposes. My point is this: you would not be “more you” in a different body. In fact, you would not be you, in a different body at all. You are body and soul, created by God for a purpose. But, what purpose? It is to glorify God with the very body he has given you. We are called to protect our bodies with great care, and also with moderation (exercise, what we eat, how we dress, and how we share it with others sexually; or shall I say how we seek not to share it sexually outside of the covenant of marriage). The world will tell you to do with your body as you please in the moment. God’s plan is different and more joyful for you.

I love reality TV shows. The sad ones to watch are where the wife goes away for six weeks and comes back a whole “new” woman—plastic surgery and all. The sad part is the response to her being home for about a month as she realizes that her husband is still the same, that he doesn’t love her more, and that he doesn’t love her less. He is still selfish. She is still selfish. He says he thought she would be happier with the face lift and tummy tuck and is frustrated that she is still not content with her body. I think about what a sad moment it must be when she realizes nothing has really changed. She was willing to give up six weeks with her family in order to be okay with herself and to have the beautiful body she always wanted. All it left her with was more emptiness as she realized her true beauty was not found in being a size four and looking fifteen years younger. True beauty, full beauty, is found in the riches of Christ. Our outer beauty will continue to fade—more wrinkles, more cellulite, more love handles. Our true beauty, found in the person and work of Christ alone, shines brightly in a dark world that so often seeks identity in anything other than God.

Are you cultivating an inner beauty that comes from being a child of the King? Or are you cultivating a beauty that comes from what the world tells you? It is so freeing to find both identity and beauty in Christ, and it is altogether lonely, stressful, and hopeless to find our beauty in trying to resemble the latest cover girl of Seventeen Magazine.

Our bodies are not our own. They are God’s, given to us to reflect his image and glory.