Title:- Naked and Not Ashamed
Psalm 27:4 One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD.....
It was a very Southern wedding. The preacher, even without his cowboy hat, looked like an extra from 'Bonanza' of long ago. He gently chided the groom and publicly threatened him with a
none too pastoral visit in the future, should he not take care of his new beautiful bride. The pastor was nicely threatening. Yet there was no doubt about it, he was threatening! There was intent in his voice. This pastor had seen them both grow up and loved them both dearly. He knew of their virginity and boasted of it publicly. It was a very Southern wedding. I loved it.The nearest town to the village I grew up in is called Chesterfield and it is in Derbyshire. God’s country! The nickname of its soccer team is the “Spirites.” This is because although St Mary’s may be the largest church in Derbyshire, it is most famous for its enormous and very crooked spire. Historians have wondered that if in the 14th century, at the time the spire was being built, the onset of the Black Death in Chesterfield may have killed many skilled craftsmen, such that, maybe the
less skilled survivors, used too much green timber in the spire, which on drying out, bent the steeple or that maybe the badly calculated construction just simply could not hold the weight of it all and so quite simply, it became bent and twisted? Local people of course have their own explanation. Rumour had it that a virgin was getting married at the church one day and the spire, never having seen a virgin bride before or since, turned and leaned over to get a closer look. Legend now says that, ‘Should the such a virginal event ever happen again, the spire will think it commonplace and straighten up again’……..It hasn’t happened yet!At the very Southern Wedding, the virgin bride and groom were beautiful. It is not crude to suggest, that the groom longed to look on the nakedness of his wife on their wedding night. Indeed, John Eldridge in his book “Wild at Heart” quotes William Blake saying “The naked woman’s body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man.” Eldridge suggests that the naked beauty of a woman is God's finishing touch on creation, embodying the beauty and the mystery and the tender vulnerability of God.
Maybe, looking longingly on nakedness, is a glorious and practical way to delight in our spouse as well as protect ourselves from lust? When we gaze on sensual curves friends, let us meditate on the deep desires that are bound up in God and allow them to ignite our passion for Him. AW Tozer in his book 'Following Hard after God', says this to us today: “The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long in vain.” Imagine that.
I wonder if all of this tells us that there too is deep desire bound up in God? An infinite wanting even. Yes, a Holy, naked and shamelessly wanton and extravagant desire for you! Even for Him to be able to gaze upon the naked beauty of who you are. God wants you and in all His magnificent beauty invites you to naked oneness with Himself. So, next time you gaze on the glorious nakedness of your beloved, imagine that. God, you see, is not absent from your sex life, but rather is completely bound up in it. This is one way in which the marriage bed is both holy and undefiled. Think about that today. But not too much though, as I’m sure you have work to do!
Listen:- Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. Psalm 73:25
Pray:- Lord. I am sorry I do not long to gaze upon You, to be with You. Lord, forgive me. Entice me today O Lord by showing me Your raw, naked and magnificent beauty. Amen.
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