Holy Belly-Button, Batman!

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013     by Lori Roeleveld     2 Comments
robin-1115934_640So, last night I was literally contemplating my navel.
It mystifies me.
Not just my navel, but yours, too, really.
We take for granted that we have them, but maybe we shouldn’t.
God didn’t have to design us with navels.
I was working with a family with a newborn last week. As that mom cared for the baby’s healing cord, I started thinking about it.
God could have designed us so that original wound closed over and healed with no scar, no marker that it was ever there.
There’s no physical purpose for navels except, eventually, to distinguish us from androids.
But God always has a reason.
Besides giving us something to contemplate,
besides allowing us to speculate about the difference between us and our original parents,
besides comparing innies and outies,
besides something for our daughter’s to pierce,
I think our bellybuttons serve as built-in reminders.
No matter who we are,
CEO or homeless drifter,
bellybuttons remind us that
at one point, we had an intimate, dependent connection with another human being.
Integral to our design
is a reminder of that intimacy,
that dependence,
that connectedness with another.
Maybe the navel is there to remind us that God intended connection and inter-dependence to continue long after the cord is snipped.
This whole business of Christians thinking they can become islands unto themselves, lone wolves with just them and Jesus, flies in the face of both Scripture and our belly-buttons.
Peter urges us, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” 1 Peter 1:22-23
If you’re starting to think that life would be much better if it was just you and God
or if you’re feeling as though living your faith would be easier if it weren’t for other Christians
and especially if you’ve started scanning the web for off-the-grid monastic long-term retreats,
reread Peter’s command-
Love one another deeply from the heart.
Do you understand scripture? Great.
Do you have regular devotions? a life free of immorality? a sense of calling? a thriving prayer life? Great.
How are you at loving others? Do you love deeply from the heart?
Maybe it’s time to stop gazing at your navel and make a deeper connection with another human.
Wrap some arms around your faith and love deeply from the heart – or the belly-button – whatever works.


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2 Comments

    The Conversation

  1. Anonymous says:
    October 30, 2013 at 10:48 pm

    Only you could take our belly buttons and insert scripture into them and it makes such sense. What a gift from God you have. What a gift from God you are to me. MOMMA

    Reply
  2. Nike Chillemi says:
    November 2, 2013 at 1:06 am

    Wonderful article.

    Oh, btw, I was contemplating my belly fat last night. (wink)

    Reply