In the scriptures we are told to be perfect. "Be ye therefore perfect ..." was the admonition from Jesus. We are also told that when we are resurrected we will have a perfected body. I have always believed that this meant we would all have two arms with a hand and 5 fingers attached to each, two legs with a foot and 5 toes attached, a straight spine, perfectly spaced ribs and organs that work, a full head of hair, etc. That is probably what it really means.
I have recently thought a little about this. I have started watching a new show "Growing Up Fisher" about a guy who is blind and a lawyer. In the first episode he cut down 4 trees with a chainsaw while his family watched and he also parallel parked a car. It is supposed to be based on a true story. It is a funny show and it makes me think. There are people with no hands that eat and change diapers with their feet. There is a famous motivational speaker with no limbs. Beethoven composed his last symphony after he was completely deaf, and it is extraordinary. Stephen Hawking has written several books by typing with his eyes because he is completely unable to move from Lou Gehrig's Disease. People do amazing things and some of them have never had anywhere near a "perfect" body.
I think about people I know. People are each unique. I wonder if perfected bodies would mean the things that make some people special would be gone. What would it be like for someone who was blind their whole life to see in the eternities. What about someone who learned to do everything with their feet suddenly having arms. I guess this is what they dream of, but I wonder if this would make them a different person than the one we love. I hope not.
Maybe the admonition to be perfect means to be perfect in our own way. Maybe the real goal is to become our own best self and to perfectly love others the way they are.
No comments:
Post a Comment