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Becoming Whole
Relationships and sexuality are areas of life that can be beautiful or confusing, life-giving, or painful. Becoming Whole is a conversational podcast for men, women, and families seeking to draw nearer to Jesus as they navigate topics like sexual integrity, relational healing, spiritual health, and so much more.
Becoming Whole
Seeing through the eyes of Jesus Part 3
What has your body been trying to tell you all along? In this profound conclusion to our three-part series, we explore how our physical bodies, specifically as male and female—communicate God's most essential nature: love that gives itself away.
Diving into Genesis, we see human beings as image-bearers of God. The first attribute mentioned about humans in scripture is that they are "male and female," suggesting our gendered bodies communicate something vital about our Creator. We examine how the Fall distorted this vision, introducing shame where there had been blessing and dignity.
Our pornographic culture has further blinded us, reducing bodies to objects of pleasure rather than carriers of God's Image. By gutting the body's message of family, commitment, and self-giving love, we've lost sight of what our bodies are trying to tell us about who God is and who we're meant to be.
Whether you're struggling with pornography, wrestling with body image, or simply longing to see yourself and others as God sees you, this episode offers a vision of human embodiment that dignifies rather than degrades. Join us in praying, "Lord, help us to see as you see."
Resources from this series:
Celebration of the Disciplines by Richard Foster
Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton
Free Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole
👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional
👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)
👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)
Hey friends, glad that you are back with us. I want to start out by asking or by giving you a statement, just to kind of sit with as we start. And here's the statement your body has been trying to tell you something. Men's bodies have been trying to tell you something. Women's bodies have been trying to tell you something. All right, so welcome back to this three-part series.
Speaker 1:We're doing really kind of unpacking these ideas. First of all, that Jesus sees differently than most of us do, the average person does, but we're actually designed to see as Jesus sees. God intends for us to see as Jesus sees. And then, secondly, pornography. Lust hides from us us. It keeps us from seeing what we're intended to see, and we unpacked that a little bit more last week, even even beginning to ask the question well, what are we supposed to see? So, james craig and myself, we're here to unpack this third part. Um, james, as we're, as we're getting started, what's what stands out to you? As you've had a little bit of time to digest the last couple of weeks, what stands out to you? That maybe would be a good place to begin today for you.
Speaker 2:I think one of the things that really stuck out from last week's episode was this idea of we often see people as either objects or obstacles and we often lust after objects and loathe obstacles that are in our way versus this idea that Jesus sees us as people, people that he cares more about than even the problems we cause. Quite a paradigm shift there, recognizing both sides of how we don't really see people the way he does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it was a helpful framework for me too and even as we stopped recording last time and you were kind of highlighting that, it is an easy place for us to park and even kind of hold up for ourselves if we're beginning to ask the question like, well, how am I doing in seeing like Jesus sees? And we can kind of hold up that the mirror. Am I seeing someone as an obstacle to my happiness? Am I seeing someone as an object for my happiness, for my sexual pleasure? Is a helpful place. If that's the case and if that's all that we're seeing there, then likely we have more room to grow and become sanctified in seeing as Jesus sees.
Speaker 1:One of the quotes we shared at the end of last episode was this beautiful quote by John Paul II where he says that the problem with pornography is not that it shows too much, but rather that it shows too little, and in the last podcast we talked about what that means in regards to seeing the person. I want to dive into that again, but this time we're going to kind of look at it, at it from a different angle and I think maybe even more of the angle that John Paul II had in mind, or at least what he part of what he wanted to unfold for us with that and and that's that's where we come into this this question of what has your body, or his body or her body, been trying to tell you? So to begin, we have to go to Genesis 1. And I want to point something out that maybe you haven't ever noticed before, listeners, because in Genesis 1, we read this creation account, the first creation account scripture gives us, and through it there are these God creates everything that we know. He creates the material world. God, who is spirit, creates the material world, anything from the sun and the moon, the stars, the planet earth, the waters, the animals, the creatures in the earth, the creatures that creep in the earth, the creatures that fly over the earth, the creatures that swim in the waters, the deserts, the mountains Just use your imagination, kind of scan the earth. And then on day six, the passage kind of takes a sharp turn, because then God speaks aloud to and theologians would suggest that he either speaks to the kind of the heavenly court or he's even speaking kind of to himself, and christian theologians might, might say, well, that's maybe even a hint there, of him speaking um, father, son, holy spirit, kind of speaking to to himself, but says this amazing phrase let us create humankind in our image. And so he does.
Speaker 1:And the first, so I kind of always imagine, like all of creation leaning in here, the angels, the other creatures on the earth leaning in and go like, okay, well, all of this is amazing. I mean, it's hard to look at the ocean without thinking you're getting some sense of God's depth and grandeur. The mountains, the same thing. A lion, the same thing. A lamb, perhaps something different than that. The sun, something different than that. These all express God in some way.
Speaker 1:But he doesn't say about any of those things that they're created in his image and likeness, like this last creature, like he said about this last creature, so, kind of imagine all creation leaning in and be like, well, what's unique about this creature made in God's image? And there's one attribute that's listed, the first attribute that was listed in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, about this one creature created in God's image is male and female. He created them. And then the first. Well, let me just pause there for a moment James, what does that do the average person to? To wrestle with that, to reckon with that, to drink that in, do you think?
Speaker 2:I think it's especially interesting in our culture that male and female are given this kind of fundamental place in the image, bearing both together, as, like male and female, he created them like, imaging him together, god, who is spirit and they're.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like it's it's hard to even wrap my mind around but also just the idea that that's given really core.
Speaker 2:It's given a core like, if made in the image of god's, kind of the center of our identity, the absolute center, like it sounds to my ears, like male and female are right right there after that, you know, just like fundamental, maybe even with that. So there's something kind of interesting about that and, um, I'm not sure if maybe our world appreciates that in the way I don't know if it ever did, but um, it's just interesting to think about as all kinds of issues around, um, kind of thinking ourselves into existence and dissociating from our bodies or our like, matter, even like science. You know the irony of many people who would kind of prescribe to scientism, like the idea that science is all there is and everything can be explained by science, are often those who might reject or struggle with and we all might struggle with this to some extent um, the fact that we have these material bodies that can feel pain and are gendered and are um distinct from one another yeah, yeah, yeah it, it.
Speaker 1:It's interesting, uh, when I was in seminary not that long ago, when we studied this passage and looked up commentaries that would talk about you know what does this mean? That we're made in the image of God, and for centuries up to current day, there's very little written about male and female. He created them. There's a lot about freedom, there's a lot about relationship, maybe the relation, relationality of human beings, but nothing specific about their embodiedness as male and female, even though it's right there in the text, which I, I would suggest, may, may have more to do with our own discomfort with male and female. We'll get into that a little bit in a minute than it does with what scripture actually reveals there. And I owe I think our present day owes Christianity, the Christian church owes a debt of gratitude, I think, to Pope John Paul II, the late Pope John Paul II, and how he helped to unpack this and put a lens on this in a way that really is needful in this day and age, and I think that'll become more clear as we, as we move forward today. Um, and there's more um, we'll sit. So let me couple clarifying points.
Speaker 1:Number one uh, we're not in any way suggesting that the scriptures are teaching that God is male or female, or male and female. God is not, he is, he is spirit. That's to make, uh, god in our image rather than us being made in his image. There's what we are saying is, there's something about manhood and something about womanhood as expressed in the body of man and woman that gives visible expression to the invisible attributes of our spiritual God. Um, what those are, I'm going to leave for for you to muse on as we, as we talk through this, but I think you might begin to get some pictures as we go forward.
Speaker 1:I also want to highlight that if that's the first attribute, notice also the first command given to this creature, the first command given this creature, the first attribute is male and female created. The first command is be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and and then after that he says and rule over it and subdue it. Interestingly again, in seminary I I it was more common to read anybody talking about yep, they're given dominion over the earth. They were like this is what mankind does, humankind does. Hardly anybody said anything about be fruitful, multiply. I was like wait, what are you doing? It's right there. It's the first command.
Speaker 2:It's kind of wild. You'd almost think like the first command might be like be good or like love each other and love me, but the first command is literally have a lot of sex. It's kind of wild.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, actually, james, I would, and we're going to get into this, but I would suggest that that what you're pointing out there, like we would suspect, the first command would be love, or love. Like me, I think that is exactly what this text is saying, and we're going to get into that a little bit, but it's, but it's. I think one of the again, one of the reasons we move away from be fruitful and multiply is because we've been so disrupted. Our eyes don't see clearly who we are, what we are. So we we have this even a we've been more trained by pornography about, and we're in a pornographied culture about what sex is and what it means to be fruitful and multiply, than we have by by by the eyes of God looking at us naked and unashamed as men and as women. Just to hammer this point home a little bit more, let's go to Genesis 3.
Speaker 1:When Adam and Eve fall, the first consequence of the fall, or at least their first reaction to the fall, is to you remember it, james, eyed right, yeah, and specifically, they sew fig leaves together to cover their loin, like their loin covering. So they're covering their genitals, they're covering what makes them distinct as man and woman. So to my eye, this is all over the creation account and all over genesis one, two and three, where we take a first look at what a human person is. And when adam and eve unplugged from the spirit of god through their disobedience, something went sideways in regards to how, how they felt about and how they understood and saw each other as image bearers of god. One way I like to say it is that what had been a blessing in their nakedness and unashamedness, their ability to become Genesis 2, for this reason, each other, and to honor and dignify each other with their, with their, with their eyes, um, something happened.
Speaker 1:I, I, I kind of this is inference, or I'm kind of speculating here, but kind of wonder if, if, before, when, when adam and looked upon eve, uh, before the fall, if she just felt seen and blessed and even like she knew herself and what she was and who she was, more because of the way that he looked at her and felt safe and good and beautiful and honored and, um, full of dignity and and like him and yet different from him and vice versa, and yet different from him and vice versa. He felt that way as she looked at him. But after the fall. Now, when she feels his eyes on her, something's different, and when he feels her eyes on him, something is different. And when they, going forward in Genesis 3, feel the presence of the Lord coming near, hear him coming near and consider that he's going to be looking on them, what had been blessing in their nakedness now becomes incredible terror and they run to hide from him.
Speaker 1:Um, and how stark that contrast from where we ended the last podcast with the idea of um being seen by Jesus and the actual ways he looked on us, even in our sin. So respond to that a little bit. What? What was percolating over there as you're hearing that one?
Speaker 2:of the things that strikes me is that there's not actually anyone else there like is it them? The serpent, right and I mean in some sense God wasn't like manifestly present, right, because he kind of enters the scene in the next little bit but it's even just with the two of them that they felt like they had to hide their nakedness, at least that's how the narrative seems to portray it. So it just strikes me that, like you're saying, it's not just about hiding from others you know, like you wouldn't want to be seen naked out on the street or whatever but it's like from each other, as you know, husband and wife, from almost like from themselves, like even individually maybe yeah, yeah, and I think I actually think like even in in those one-to-one settings between husband and wife.
Speaker 1:so let's just talk about husband and wife for a minute, because these are two people who we would assume um have committed to each other, love each other, want to be with each other. They've made lifelong vows to be together and yet I would, I would suggest that most of our listeners who are married would say they, they are, they are familiar with shame in their nakedness with their spouse. They are familiar with discomfort or questions of how do I compare to other people that he sees or that she sees? Am I pleasing to him or her? What about when we get older? What about after I've had babies?
Speaker 1:What about when I lose my job? What about when I lose my temper? Like, what is it like to be naked in front of her or him? Then I think we're really familiar with this experience of shame and how shame makes us feel, almost like we are rewinding to before Adam and Eve came together. So before they came together, adam was alone and had that sense of being alone, and I think that shame has a way to kind of cast us back into that kind of darkness of even with somebody feeling like we're alone most like shame is.
Speaker 2:If we're talking about this theme of really seeing someone. Shame is like feeling not really seen. Maybe you you looked at, maybe you know stuff about me, but like either I can't let you really see me, cause what are you, how are you going to respond to that? Or I don't feel like you're really seeing me right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, or maybe I'd add to that, maybe you'd agree, like the way that I see myself is is means it's bad news for you to see me. So maybe, maybe for some people it's like yeah, um, you know, I feel like you're, you're seeing me, but the way that you're seeing me feels like you're really not seeing me. And then for others there's a feeling of like, yeah, I, the way I see, like I don't want you to see me. Um and I, and I think I've I've talked in my work here at region. I've talked to people who kind of fall in both those camps. I know, um, given a talk to a group of parents about some of this stuff, and this woman came to me afterwards which is not uncommon for people to kind of pull me aside and want a little private conversation and just saying, man, I don't feel safe or loved with my husband in our marriage bed. I feel like he's using me, not loving me, and this is a part of the intimate place of we're made to. We're meant to see like Jesus sees. He is revealing to us what a human person is meant to of, like the intimate place of we want. When we're made to, we're meant to see, like jesus sees. He is revealing to us what a human person is meant to see. Like um and this, this, that, in comparison, that's even in the marriage bedroom, compared to like jesus with the woman, the immoral woman. It's I'm the pharisee, it's called a sinner, but Jesus saw as this beloved woman who loved very much. All right, so let's keep going, though, because we got, we have limited time.
Speaker 1:I want to come back to this idea of what her body is trying to tell you. So, and I want to, I want to get there by kind of going the other way. I want to compare it to like what we actually see, or what our pornographied culture has taught us to see. Our sexualized media has taught us to see when we see another person and then kind of flip that on its head as we're thinking about how we image God. So one of the things I've noticed over the years about pornography or sexualized media are some of the things that are missing from the media.
Speaker 1:Are some of the things that are missing from the media? First of all, like you know, like human being, like you know, it's kind of the idealized, quote-unquote idealized body type, usually not a lot of spectrum there. There's usually, like you know, the woman looks just, and it's especially hard on women, and so many young women are like, just being brutalized by the images put in front of them. I'm like this is what a real woman is and this is what a good body is. A good body looks like this. But men are experienced that too. I was just talking to a couple of young guys this last week who were expressing like one was like man, I just feel like, you know, my body's not very good because I'm overweight. And the other guy was like I feel like my body's not very good Cause it's really skinny. Um, but notice what's missing there. Like the whole realm of like what makes a good body is just wrapped up in some I don't know where it came from, but some picture of like it has to look like this.
Speaker 2:It's pretty different than even a couple hundred years ago. Like the most fashionable Queens or kings look pretty different than what we might idealize in some ways today yeah, which just suggests like something's missing.
Speaker 1:Um, but it's also what the other thing that we're missing with that is like. Your body is not just how it appears to other people. Your body includes all your faculties to engage the world your sense of smell, your ability to hear, your ability to taste, your ability to touch, um. So the idea that we've truncated what makes a good body to how it appears to other people or to kind of get back into the conversation we've been having, how other people, how your body makes other people feel that's's the, you know, like lust or loathing right Versus my body is how I hold my daughter. My body is the only way I can hold my daughter. My body is how I get to see my wife. My body is how I get to hear what you're saying to me right now, james, and how I get to take in the nuances and insights that you bring to this conversation. That's all thanks to my body, which is very good. So the pornographied, sexualized media dismisses all that. None of that matters. It's just how you make me feel, um.
Speaker 1:Second thing I think that's missing and this is so key is um, there's no sense in in most of most pornography, of family. This isn't about like I know you, I see you, I'm committed myself to you. It's just like I just got here with a pizza and you turn me on and so here we go. Um, so they've taken out family. They've certainly taken up marriage and so much our media does that too and with that they've also taken out procreation. So when you think about the body and what it's saying or what it's trying to tell you, it's trying to tell you things about God's image, like how we bear God's image, that include things about family, that include things about being seen and loved, that include things about commitment, that include things about procreation. So let me just pause there for a second. What are you hearing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and all that is shaved away, all that becomes this idealized body that will never get pregnant or impregnate, that will bring pleasure to the people engaged and the viewers, but like, not actually the seeing of, like the fullness of that person, like caring about the fact that you share that terrible story last time about the adult porn star I'm forgetting her name right now Michelle, yeah, michelle, yeah. And just how like she was brutalized, she was raped, she was in pain and many of those videos that were just told to keep on rolling and it's just like, well, it doesn't matter how you're feeling, like is this bringing the people who are going to watch pleasure?
Speaker 2:It's so inverted from like Jesus, giving his body, like suffering for the sake of his bride, versus like I don't know, demanding that people suffer for him in a cruel way.
Speaker 1:Yes, all right, man, here we go and, friends, we recognize the time here. We're actually at a place where we need to land this plane. So I'm going to just kind of do some rapid fire, because what James is talking about is essential guts the body, the message of the body, of all its faculties, and makes it just what it. You know the pleasure it brings somebody else through appearance or through the sexual satisfaction quote-unquote it can bring it. Guts it of family and commitment and love and seeing and being seen and self-giving, love and procreation. Jesus again comes back to show us no, that's not what you are, this is what you are. And and James just just pointed to his words at the last supper, when he breaks the bread and pours the wine and says this is my body given for you, and certainly Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is something that we can never, never. That is, that was him and his, him alone that can do that. And yet he is revealing for us that our bodies are actually designed to love like that. So I like to put it this way what? What is your body been trying to tell you? What is her body or his body been trying to tell you? It's been trying to tell you that god is love and love is self-giving. Your body is trying to tell you. Her body, his body, has been trying to tell you god is love and love is self-giving. We are meant to be walking the earth with this constant billboard, this message, this icon in front of us all the time, whenever we behold man or woman, that God is love and love is self-giving. Love is designed to give himself away for the good of the other. All right, friends. So James had to drop off. We ran out of time recording together, but there's just too much kind of in the marrow of what we're talking about to stop right there and we want to get this recorded so we can get it out to you. So I'm just going to take a few more minutes, if you'll allow me just to kind of unpack that a little bit more, if you'll allow me just to kind of unpack that a little bit more.
Speaker 1:We've been talking about learning to see like Jesus sees, and that we're that. He sees differently than most of us do, but we're meant to see as he does, and so you can even kind of muse on for a moment. We've been talking about regards to man and a woman bearing God's image, and how Jesus, as he walked the earth and saw women and saw men, he saw those things that we don't often see. And so the woman caught in adultery or the immoral woman washing his feet with her tears, could it be that some of the love he felt and love he was able to give them in those moments was really rooted both in seeing the individual person there, in recognizing they got a story that's led them to this place, and also him seeing how god designed them and seeing something of god's image in them, even twisted a little bit. And I think we can see the thing here about john three. When it's John three, john four, sorry.
Speaker 1:When Jesus talks to the woman of Samaria, the woman at the well, and she's expressing, through her brokenness, these five, I mean he sees this, he knows, kind of supernaturally, that she's had five husbands and she's now living with someone who's not her husband, um, but she is thirsty and he knows she's thirsty and instead of just seeing the outward appearance, he sees, I believe to the to the heart, that the reason that she's been through five husbands, I mean assuming that she had something to do with the ending of the marriage. It could have been that the guy ended it. It was easy in the middle East in that time and, I think, still some places today for a woman just to be discarded. But why did she keep coming back? Why did she keep going back to different men, including now a man who's not even willing to marry her? And why did she come back to the well? Same reason because she's thirsty for what she was made for. She was made for love. She was made from love and for love. So what is her body, even her longing, her sexual, romantic longing that she feels in her body, trying to tell her about who she is, that God is love and that love is self-giving. This is what she's longing for.
Speaker 1:In Jesus' conversation with her there at the well, when he says that's just who I am, I am the Messiah, he's really saying I'm the one who can give you a never ending water that wells up and will overflow. And she's like that's what I want. He's like, and I think in essence like, read through between the lines. He's like he's saying yes, I know, that's what you want, that's what I see, even in your broken story. I see that you are made in God's image, for love. You are made for that kind of love. So as we engage people's stories, we recognize there's more there going on under the surface. And as we look at ourselves and other men and other women, we're meant to see something of God's image in them. So ask yourself and begin so. Last time we talked, I'll kind of wrap up here in them. So ask yourself and begin so. Last time we talked, I'll kind of wrap up here.
Speaker 1:Last time we talked about how do we grow more able to see as Jesus sees? Well, one, we pray, because this is a supernatural work. It's not just something we can muster on our own. We pray. If Jesus came to restore sight to the blind and lust is a form of blindness then, lord, I want to see. Help me to see. Do what only you can do. You made my eyes in the first place. Sin has blinded them. Open my eyes again supernaturally, to see as you see. We can pray that daily. We can pray it moment by moment, we can pray it in moments of temptation. We can certainly even pray it just over our lives in general and for one another. And then we also practice. We practice seeing as Jesus sees, and so last time we talked about practicing seeing the real person, seeing an element of their story and kind of telling ourselves the truth about the person. Here we can also practice seeing how does this person or how does this, this, this gender or that gender image God?
Speaker 1:How does a woman's body image god? What does her, what do her curves and her soft skin, her breasts and her genitals, her capacity for procreation, what is her the, the tone of her voice, the tenor of her voice communicate about god's love? What is her nursing a child communicate? What does her pregnancy communicate? What is her nursing a child communicate? What is her pregnancy communicate? What is her ability to give birth to a child communicate about God as love, and God and love is self-giving. It's written all over her body, written all over her body. One of the most beautiful places there in my mind is childbirth, which I think most women would agree, if they're not medicated, would call excruciating, and right in the center of that word. Excruciating is the word, is the root word, crux, which means cross. Her childbirth is an image of how far she will go for love of her child and it communicates something into the visible world God's invisible love. How far will he go out of love for his children.
Speaker 1:Jesus talks about this in John 3, when he says to Nicodemus if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, you must be born again. And Nicodemus is just thinking kind of on the earthly level. He's like what do you mean? Like I've got to enter my mother's womb again? I can't do that. And Jesus said no, no, no, no. That's earthly. You're flipping it upside down, nicodemus. You're making God in your image. It's the other way around. You're made in God's image. Woman and childbearing is made in God's image. Jesus where did he experience the birth pangs that woman experiences? On the cross. It was excruciating, but on the cross is where we are able to, through faith, be born again. It's because of his work on the cross.
Speaker 1:Incidentally, I don't think there's one element of the curse that God articulates in Genesis 3. All the consequences of their sin that he articulates to man and woman you can find. They point to, they image something about what God is like and what Jesus is going to do. By the sweat of your brow, you're going to produce thorns and thistles, he tells the man. But what happens? As Jesus is praying the excruciating prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, he's sweating drops of blood. What's placed on his head before he goes to the cross? A crown of thorns? I mean, this is just written all over these pages of scripture. Brothers and sisters, your body is telling us something about what God is like and the length to which he will go in his love for you, his love to be united with you.
Speaker 1:So as you look at a man's body as a woman's body, ask what is this telling me? What is a man's strength in his upper body, his capacity for greater muscle mass? What is it telling In the fall, as we stand naked and ashamed in front of each other? His nakedness, his strength, his larger muscle mass is a threat to human beings, a threat to other men who are weaker. It's a threat to women, who may be more vulnerable. I'm not saying a blanket statement about all women are weaker than men. I don't mean that. But across the board, the way that man is designed, man's body and what happens with testosterone that runs through a male's body at puberty, muscle mass has greater capacity for muscle mass, has greater capacity for bone density. Stereotypically, across cultures, across time, men are larger than women, and I say that you can hear even my I feel apologetic saying it because we're so familiar to it being a threat, but in God's design it's not.
Speaker 1:It's meant to be a blessing. Adam's body in front of Eve before the fall was a blessing. It was a gift to her. He was meant to step in front of the serpent and say no, and he didn't. He abdicated that responsibility. But Jesus, our bridegroom, went in front of the serpent and said no. He resisted temptation and he ended up going to the cross. So where Adam and Eve reached out both of them and took and ate that from the tree which they weren't designed to, our Savior, our bridegroom, let himself be stripped and naked and shamed and hung on the tree, becoming a curse for us that we might be restored to who we really are designed to be. And where they took and ate what they weren't supposed to, jesus comes expressing this is what a human's meant to be, and he breaks the bread and pours the wine and says this is my body given for you. Take and eat. We are not designed to take and eat. Devour one another. We are meant to give ourselves lovingly to one another. That's what love does. That's what it means to be a human. That's what God is like and in whose image we are made.
Speaker 1:Brothers and sisters, I hope this has been helpful for you in your desire to see as Jesus sees. He's given you your eyes that you would see as he sees, lord. Lord, help us to see as you see. Give us eyes to see what is real and true and how we image you. Lord, we have traded our true vision for lust and loathing, for treating others as objects and obstacles. But would you give us eyes to see in hearts, to love like you do, to see as we were designed to and redeemed to, and to love with our bodies, as we were designed to and redeemed to, and to love with our bodies as we were designed to and redeemed to, or we aspire for this. Ignite the fire in us that we might make ground in this area. I pray it now in the name of the father, the son and holy spirit, amen.
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