The camels paraded down a dusty racetrack. Judges rated the size of their lips, cheeks, heads, and knees. Crowds of men watched from the bleachers and cheered when animals representing their tribe walked down the track.
However, twelve of the contestants have been disqualified from this year’s camel beauty contest in Saudi Arabia because their handlers used Botox to embellish their appearance.
The disqualified camels are not unique: body image is a major issue in our time. Ninety-one percent of women are unhappy with their bodies. According to a recent study, men are as unhappy with their body image as women. Weight loss is a $60 billion industry. Eight million Americans have an eating disorder.
The biblical solution to the body image crisis of our day is simple: see ourselves as God sees us. So, how does God see us?
God blessed Abraham “in all things”
I was reading through Genesis yesterday when this verse halted me: “Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years. And the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things” (Genesis 24:1, my emphasis). God recognizes no sacred-secular division, no distinction between religion and the “real world.” He was able to bless Abraham “in all things.”
When last did you make Abraham’s experience your prayer?
God made “all things” and cares about “all things” today. Like any good father, he wants only the best for his children. He loves you so passionately that, no matter your circumstances, he will “rejoice over you with gladness” and “exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).
Does his care for us mean that he protects us from every hardship?
Jesus warned his closest followers, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33a). The martyrs in heaven were told to “rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been” (Revelation 6:11).
God’s love for us does not…
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