Saving Flesh

God will save God’s people on that day… They will sparkle in God’s land like jewels in a crown. How attractive and beautiful they will be! – Zechariah 9:16-17a (NIV adapted) 

A good friend of mine was in therapy for a debilitating situational depression. After a few months, her appetite improved, there was less pressure in her chest. But she still couldn’t listen to music. It overwhelmed her. Her depression was deep, and progress was slow. 

It was spring. Each week she walked to her appointment along the tree-lush banks of the Charles River in Cambridge, MA, where on warm days Harvard undergrads lolled in various states of undress, sunning themselves, tossing Frisbees, preening, laughing, and seducing each other with unapologetic sensuality.  

She saw them through a lusterless haze. Everything gray, everyone blurred, voices muffled and distorted, underwater. And she couldn’t bear them, those children, their youth and their joy. The pleasure they took in their bodies repulsed her.  

But then one day she looked at them, and they were gleaming. Their light didn’t hurt her eyes. Their laughter made her own heart sing. Their flesh was so resplendent it made her cry.  

And right then and there she loved them, loved their bodies in all their graceful, awkward, odd, and lovely permutations, their varied colors, shapes, and sizes. She loved their joy, their life, their immodest abandon. She almost fell to her knees, adoring.  

On the day she loved them, she knew she was well. She knew she was whole again when their bodies became for her a parted sea, a burning bush, a transfiguration. She knew she was saved the day that human flesh made manifest the Glory. 

It was Christmas, that spring. 

Prayer
Save us in the body, through the body, by the body, O God who, in Bethlehem’s Child, took one for yourself. Praise to you, who loves all flesh.

About the Author
Mary Luti is a long time seminary educator and pastor, author of Teresa of Avila’s Way and numerous articles, and founding member of The Daughters of Abraham, a national network of interfaith women’s book groups.