I’d like you to consider for a moment how I believe God really feels about the topic of our bodies and sexuality, so join me for a little visualization exercise. Let’s pretend that an incredibly wealthy king gives each of his grown children their own house to live in. Not just any house, but each dwelling has been custom tailored to each child’s personality and tastes. He has a beautiful English cottage built for his daughter, landscaped with trumpet vines, lavender bushes, and all sorts of other flowering plants and trees, and a cobblestone path meanders through an orchard of succulent fruit trees. For his son, he has a grand log cabin built on the side of a mountain with a large deck overlooking a pristine fishing pond. Both son and daughter are set to enjoy a lifetime in these luxurious surroundings.
But one day the king is strolling through the city streets, and stumbles unexpectedly upon his son and daughter dressed in rags and crouching inside a cardboard box. Bewildered, the king inquires, “What are you doing here in the streets like homeless people? Why aren’t you enjoying the houses I had built for you?”
The son and daughter reply, “Well, those houses are indeed amazing, but we were afraid that if we enjoyed them too much that you might, uh, judge us.”
Can you imagine the king’s shock? His dismay? His utter disbelief? Why in the world would these adult children presume that their father would judge them for enjoying something that he fully intended for their pleasure? Why would they choose to limit their existence to a cardboard box when so many delights are awaiting them in their own extravagant homes?
Do you make the connection between this scenario and the sexual bodies God has given us to live in? He’s gone to such great lengths, designing us such that we can experience incredible physical pleasures throughout life! Why would we choose not to enjoy them? So perhaps instead of fearing God’s judgment if we enjoy these sexual bodies too much, we should fear His disappointment if we don’t.
