Dazzling, Ironic Spa Day

Of all the paradoxes I have experienced on my spiritual journey (and, believe me, they are numerous and profound... such is the nature of the Christian faith), NOTHING approaches the paradox of Spa Day.

Here I am a wheelchair-using woman with about 80-100 extra pounds on my frame planning a Spa Day event. I don't know about you, but the idea of going to a spa has always made me extremely squeamish. Good night!... to have somebody actually "see" all those body parts that I take such care to keep covered... well, that sounded worse than what I've been reading about torture through water boarding. Spas were for women who ate cucumber sandwiches on a regular basis and who had bodies that were "honor worthy".

Fast forward to this past Saturday's Spa Day at our church. Over 70 women, many from rehab halfway houses, came to the event. It was a day like nothing I have ever experienced at church. It was as though we had soaked up grace with a sponge the size of a football field and squeezed it out over the Family Life Center. It was fun, laughter-filled and lavender-scented. Women of all ages and walks of life shared in the joy of honoring our bodies. (I love to think that the middle school- aged girls had a transformative experience that will carry them forward armed with a different perspective about their bodies than the one with which they are assaulted by the culture.)

God pulled back the veil and we experienced a foretaste of the Kingdom. In the Kingdom we can say, "My body is valuable beyond imagining because it is a temple of the Holy Spirit." We can rub peppermint scented lotion on our feet (even our disabled feet) and call them beautiful. We can ask our bodies to forgive us for mistreating them, especially the parts that we have so long dishonored. In the Kingdom, we can look at each other with God's eyes and see that we are all exquisite. In the Kingdom, the fairy tale becomes true and "Cinderellas" are transformed into beautiful princesses by the King. ( We learn what the King knew all along : we were always princesses. We just got blindsided into thinking we were scullery maids.)

And now, I need to stop writing about Spa Day and go clean my bathroom. (But only after I eat a cucumber sandwich and give myself a facial.) Ahh... the life of a princess in the Kingdom!