Years ago, I visited my friend Becky—an occupational therapy student at the time—in the anatomy lab where she was studying. Because I had expressed interest in what she was learning, she offered to show me the cadaver that she and her peers had been working with.

Becky spent almost an hour showing me different parts of the body and describing how everything was intricately interconnected, with secondary systems that kicked in when primary systems failed and with separate parts of the body created to work in harmony with one another. As I gazed at that rather smelly, dried-out cadaver, which had been poked and prodded by students for the better part of a year, I was suddenly overwhelmed by how beautiful it was. It seemed as if I were looking at a visual symphony. I found myself blinking back tears, hoping Becky wouldn’t notice and think I was a little nuts. But every part of that body seemed to sing of a divine Creator.

The Sacredness of the Body

God, who formed the heavens and the earth, the planets and the galaxies, considers us, His children, to be His crowning creation. He designed our bodies with divine intention: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion … over all the earth. … So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1: 26-27).

As Latter-day Saints, we know that the experience of inhabiting a physical body is central to the plan of salvation. The Proclamation on the Family states, “In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters … accepted [God’s] plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.” The body is the vehicle that enables us to carry out our individual missions in mortality.

Christian doctrines are replete with references to the sacredness of the human body. Our bodies, with all their imperfections, are temples for the Holy Ghost (see 1 Corinthians 6:19). In contrast with the popular assertion “My body, my choice,” we do not own our bodies; we are stewards, tasked with caring for them until our mortal journey is through (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Latter-day Saint doctrine further tells us that God created our bodies “in the likeness of our spirits” (Doctrine and Covenants 77:2) and that the body and the spirit together form the soul (see Doctrine and Covenants 88:15). Thus, modifying core features of our body might constitute a futile attempt to modify the very soul. 

Gender and Sex

Our physical bodies reflect our innate, eternal gender, which is a core part of our identity as children of God. The Family Proclamation states, “Each [of us] is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.”

While not all has been revealed to us, we know that our gender, or biological sex, has a fundamental purpose:  facilitating reproduction and parenthood. God’s most important role is that of parent, making possible the “immortality and eternal life” of His children (see Moses 1:39). Our own purpose is to become more like Him. And as joint heirs of Christ (see Romans 8:17), our opportunities to do so, including through parenthood, stretch into the eternities.

Our gender informs us which of the two parental roles we will have, whether in this life or the next. We ourselves, without exception, each came into being through the union of two biological parents, one male and one female. Because there are only two reproductive roles, there are only two sexes. While one’s appearance may be altered, one’s sex cannot be changed; it pervades every cell of the body.

Mortality: One Part of an Eternal Plan

An understanding of gender and the function of biological sex is required for parenthood and for building families—the basic building block of society. Stable societies are founded upon stable, loving families. And research shows that children fare best when they are raised by their biological parents, male and female, who are united in a low-conflict marriage. The Family Proclamation affirms this truth. Yet in this mortal world, for myriad reasons, not all will have the opportunity to be a parent and have a family. And some will experience confusion and distress related to their gender. There may be great pain in recognizing the gulf that lies between one’s present circumstances and the ideal. Personally, while I don’t experience gender distress, I do know the pain of yearning to have a family of my own but not having the opportunity and thus feeling far from the ideal at times.

I remind myself that mortality, with all its opportunities, sorrows, and joys, was never intended to satisfy all our righteous desires. What matters most in this life is not our family status but the status of our hearts and whether we are trying to follow God’s will for our lives. Are we emulating the Savior’s expression, “Not my will, but thine, be done”? For some of us, could our individual Abrahamic tests—those tests that “wrench [our] very heart strings”—be to temporarily sacrifice our righteous desires for purposes we cannot fully see? Could some of us be called to learn and grow in ways other than marriage and parenting, at least for a time, and to contribute in ways not available to those with families? Regardless, mortality is not merely something to endure before “real life” begins after we die. Meaning, purpose, and our part in God’s beautiful plan are to be found now.

Subjecting Our Will to God’s

Our modern secular culture does not encourage us to consider questions and concepts like these or to prioritize God’s will for our lives. Indeed, we are often told that we can essentially become our own gods—the clay attempting to become the potter (see Jeremiah 18:6). 

Bryan Johnson—a tech entrepreneur who is engaged in a public effort to reverse aging and avoid death (and who, incidentally, is a former Latter-day Saint)—captured the zeitgeist in a recent interview: “The irony is that we told stories of God creating us. … I think the irony is that the human storytelling got it exactly in the reverse, that we are the creators of God, and that we will create God in our own image.”

We are told we can have what we want when we want it: we can make profound changes to our bodies and our core identities, have sexual relationships and children outside of marriage, terminate pregnancies at will, choose when to exit our lives through euthanasia, or define marriage in multiple ways. We are repeatedly told to be our “authentic selves,” meaning to follow the lead of our feelings and align with “our truth” rather than “the truth.” Indeed, the very concept of truth is becoming increasingly confused, with objective feelings prioritized over material reality.

But it is only through subjecting our will to God’s and following His design for our lives, including His design for our gender, that we can reach our full eternal potential and thereby achieve lasting joy.

Love Grounded in Truth

None of us has a life that aligns perfectly with the ideals described in the Proclamation. But as with all scripture and doctrines, what shall we strive for if we do not have ideals? “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp,” wrote the poet Robert Browning, “or what’s a heaven for?” As disciples of Christ with imperfect lives, we are called to respond with love and compassion to our brothers and sisters who have their own struggles. And we are called to do so while remaining grounded in truth. 

The truth is that God, who numbers the stars, knows each one of us and created us individually for a divine, unique purpose. Our gendered bodies reflect our eternal identities and are part of His plan, which is both majestic and intimate. As the Psalmist declared, “Thou hast created my inward parts: thou hast formed me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13; see footnotes). Indeed, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (v. 14) in God’s image, male and female, with the capacity to inherit all He has. Our greatest fulfillment and meaning can be found when we align ourselves with His eternal design for us.

 

 

The post In the Image of God: What Our Bodies Reveal About Divine Design appeared first on Public Square Magazine.

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