Beautiful Bodies

The Paris Olympics took place in the summer of 2024. Paris, the city of love and romance and bodily freedom, played host to some of the most fit bodies in the world competing for precious metals. We love the Olympics because they represent the best of what humanity can physically achieve through hard work and discipline. They give us a hopeful glimpse of what each of us could be. If we have eyes to see beyond our reductionist sexualization and objectification of people, the Olympics can reveal to us the pure beauty of the human body.

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Paul says:
Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.

We are destined for resurrection, an imperishable embodied future. Paul expounds upon this a few chapters later in 1 Corinthians 15. Imagine the Imago Dei no longer suppressed by sin and suffering. It was this combination of watching the Olympics, hearing the stories of extreme dedication, and meditating on these Scriptures that I wrote this poem.

Beautiful Bodies
The human body radiates
The beauty of the Lord.
All features, sizes, colors, weights,
All hues and shapes adored.

In peak condition athletes fight
To reach the highest goal.
We stand in awe of human might
And cheer with heart and soul.

Emotions rarely run so high
As when our nation soars,
Or when the underdogs defy
All odds to raucous roars.

Our seniors smile and reminisce
Their glory days long past.
Our children dream of future bliss,
When their time comes at last.

We praise the Maker of our race,
Whose image we behold
In every body, every face,
In victories untold.