Jesus with Skin

If you haven't heard of a man named David Seamands, allow me to introduce you to him. I first heard about his books from my mentor while in seminary, but I didn't heed her advice to read any of them until years later, and now I can't put his stuff down. If you are anything like me in any way and looking for any type of validation of your pain or experience or emotions as well as godly, sound, WORKING principles for how to wade through them, then check. him. out.

With that said, one theme that recurs in his books has to do with the fact that too often Christians are taught that since your feelings are not necessarily 'reality,' you should just 'get over them,' or 'ignore them,' or 'toughen up.' Don't listen to lies, people say, if your feelings are telling you lies. Seamands, a trained seminarian as well as psychologist, recognizes the GODLY truth that in the bible, fact and feeling are not so much separated. I won't go into his explanation of this because his books explain it better. Although the concept is not new to him, it seems NOT to be practiced by most pastoral counselors or disciplers or average christians. "You just FEEL that way, but it's not reality. Fight it with truth." That's what we get. But it is usually not that simple. I mean, people with negative feelings don't often WANT to feel that way. Anyway, I'm getting off subject.

"Jesus with skin," is what I've heard Seamands and others say. People often need to EXPERIENCE the truth about who God is or how God loves from others. It is VERY hard for a person simply to believe God's truth if they never see it in the world. Christians must be forthcoming with the offering of experiences of Jesus with skin. ACT toward others, LOVE toward others, BE toward others how JESUS is. I've seen this a huge issue in my life. I need more Jesus with skin. Or, I need my eyes opened to the Jesus with skin around me. True, even if the world is cruel and evil, we should know that God is still God and the truth about His love and His sovereignty and care for us is still TRUE. It's not shaken, but come on people! You can't beat a child daily and belittle him/her and say 'but know this! Jesus loves you!' No. Be Jesus with SKIN to that child, and he/she will have a much easier time BELIEVING truth about God.

Ok, so now with all that said, I want to share my "Jesus with Skin" experience: :)

In August of 2006, a guy I was dating told me that he couldn't marry me because he did not want to wake up to my face every morning for the rest of his life. Why? Because he didn't like the way it looked. Those words tore into my soul and fed my every insecurity, especially the ones that began in childhood when kids would make fun of me for my complexion that was covered with red splotches which they called 'red dots.' I cannot remember a time I was not self conscious about my face. I started wearing make up in 6th grade to try to cover up the 'dots.' By the time I was in graduate school, I had come to a place where I had accepted my face and didn't feel utterly ashamed of it and embarrassed. With one statement from this 'oh-so-sensitive' young man, I was in 6th grade again crying my eyes out and wanting to rip off my face, wondering why God made me so hideous. Being honest, as I am on this blog, this man's words have sat with me for the past 5 years and echoed in my head over and over. I've lost 'acceptance' of how God made me. These Jesus with skin occurrence was scarring. How could God love or accept me? He made me this way, and it was obviously a curse...one that would make someone who was my best friend at the time tell me the one reason he couldn't marry me was because of how my face looked.

Well, just to prove how important having a "Jesus with skin" is, I must tell you about what happened just last week while playing with Franklin. Many of you have read the funny story about him not liking the 'net' that was on my head during my wedding. It could have had 'spiders' in it because it looked like a 'spider web.' :) So as Franklin and I were sitting on the couch, he brushed my long bangs away from my forehead and said:
Franklin: You didn't have your hair down like that at your wedding with the net.
Me: You're right. I didn't.
Franklin: They were up like this (he then moves my hair back and up).
Me: Yes, they were, but you didn't like the net.
Franklin: No, but I like your hair back like that.
Me: Why?
Franklin: because then I can see your whole face.
Me: Aww, you like Aunt Megin's face?
Franklin: Yeah. I want to see Aunt Megin's face.

This Jesus with skin occurrence was the exact opposite of my August 2006 one. This little boy loves me so much. He loves my face! He doesn't love it because it is perfect like a supermodel's or devoid of red dots. He loves it because it is mine; it is Aunt Megin's, and he wants to see all of it.

Everyone needs "Jesus with skin," and we are often being "Jesus with skin" even when we don't realize it. Think about your actions and your words. Do you reflect the love of Christ? Do your actions mimic Jesus' actions? Do your words mimic them? True, people should not NEED/COUNT ON affirmation from others to survive or feel worth, but they most certainly don't need degradation and abuse from them and shouldn't be expected simply to brush off such abuse. Franklin reminds me of that. Being Jesus to someone and speaking His love is of immeasurable worth and help.