My Belly-Button Window

If you're like me, you probably never think much about your belly-button... until this week.

The Bible shows us in Romans 5 that we are born under the curse of sin, passed down to every person in every generation since Adam. We don't choose to be born under this curse, it just is what it is, because God designed the universe in such a way that the sin of parents would be passed on to their children. The curse means that we will surely be dead spiritually ("for in the day that you eat [the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil], you will surely die"). Adams sin made us all sinners. We have no choice in the matter - WE ARE BORN DEAD.

Until recently, I had never thought of belly-buttons as a scar. But, this shows us a very important thing: being human means we are certainly going to be scarred. We must have oxygen to live in the womb, and the only way for us to get this is via the umbilical cord. And the umbilical cord does us no good once we are born - it must be cut, clamped off, and fall off. And that means there will have to be a scar.

This illustrates original sin for us: we are scarred before we even know who our parents are. And we are destined to be scarred be the very fact that we are human.

NEVERTHELESS!!!

"Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s gdisobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous." (Ro 5:18-19, ESV)

All the healing we need for our scars, to redeem us out of the curse and bring us the greatest happiness we could ever have has been accomplished through the one man's righteousness. We have perfect righteousness gifted to us simply by faith in that one man - Jesus.

I never thought my belly-button would be my teacher...