The Body

Last week we were on a spiritual retreat with a group of people up in the mountain.  We were surrounded by lakes.  Beautiful!

During communion one day a friend sang the song, "How Beautiful" which says,
  How beautiful the hands that served
The wine and the bread and the sons of the earth
How beautiful the feet that walked
The long dusty roads and the hill to the cross

How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ

How beautiful the heart that bled
That took all my sin and bore it instead
How beautiful the tender eyes
That chose to forgive and never despise

How beautiful, how beautiful
How beautiful is the body of Christ
 

I was thinking about the dead body of Jesus and how the ladies came to put spices on his body.  Even though it was broken and bruised and bloody, it was still beautiful.

While we were at this retreat, a guy drowned in one of the lakes.  He was there with two buddies and they were drinking.  He jumped in and didn't come up.  His family came from Delhi to find his body.  It took 3 or 4 days before the police could snag his body from the bottom of the lake.  I imagined his mother receiving his body and washing him and putting clothes on him.  And how to her, he was still beautiful because it was her son.

Then I thought about the church.  We are the body of Christ.  We are also not so pretty to look at by those who don't know us or those who don't love the body.  But for those who love the body of Christ, the church is beautiful.