Salon Body Image: What Color Are You?
At the last Marcella salon we discussed body image, the theology of the body, where I shared the following illustration about being the “color” God made us.
My first church experience as a new believer was at a church located in a wealthy area. The women there were godly women, they were quiet, refined, and very well dressed (make up, jewelry and all). And there I was…loud, assertive, a farm girl with three little ones in tow; I was lucky if I got matching socks on! I was nothing like them. These ladies were light pink and I was lime green. And I kept thinking, “I need to be quieter, dress nicer, be kinder…I need to be light pink.”Then God spoke to me with an image of him being color. If God were color he would be every color we know and every shade of those colors and he would be colors we’ve never even seen before. Because he’s huge, big, more, it was as if God was saying to me, “Jackie, I make people different colors because it takes all of those colors to express who I am to the world.” In other words, if all of God is to be reflected to the world we have to be our color rather than trying to be a different color.So I need to be lime green. Lime green is strong, warrior like. And there’s a part of God that roars. And we need light Pink, like wonderful my mom. She shows the peace of God. I need her to be her color because I’m not peaceful. She lets me see that about my God…he is peace. And I suspect she needs to see her God as fighter, warrior at times too.Our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139) They are a word about God. The visible pointing to the invisible.Eugene Peterson said, “God’s creative genius is endless. He never, fatigued and unable to maintain the rigors of creativity, resorts to mass-producing copies. Each life is a fresh canvas on which He uses lines and colors, shades and lights, textures and proportions that He has never used before.”So think for a minute. How does your body - including your soul, personality, everything about you - speak of God (remember we aren’t separate but whole beings)? In other words, what characteristic of God do you think you emulate in ways others don’t?There’s a lot to be known about God isn’t there? Our bodies help make him known…I need to know him more so please be your color.