You CAN Find Healing in a Man

So I’m watching Riverdale after being repeatedly told I need to watch it…I’m also a 21 year old, very basic white girl, (Judge away, haters) and one thing always gets to me in shows or movies like this. The girl is hurt, maybe she hurts herself, or she has a struggle and she’s unable to fix it herself, and some guy always has to come in and save her.

 

Now this isn’t some feminist rant either, so stick with me! Betty has bad anxiety to the point that when she gets too overwhelmed, she digs her fingernails into the palms of her hands-naturally causing an indention and sometimes a little bleeding. Her boyfriend, who, get this, is named Jughead-finds out what she does in times of stress and takes both of her hands in his, kissing them to reassure her things would be alright.

 

As someone who’s struggled with self harm, it was a “tumblr dream” to have a guy take my hands and kiss my scars on my wrists-telling me I’m beautiful and everything would be alright. As I sit here watching this scene between Betty and Juggy, I’m conflicted. Half of me is a romantic who is fawning over this scene. “Oh wow, I just need a guy like that. Someone who will look at my flaws and despite them all-tell me I’m worth it and not condemn me for it.” The other half of me, the realistic half, was rolling my eyes harder than the middle schoolers I teach at church.

Puh-lease! So unpractical, so unimaginable…like that would ever happen…and I’m right, in a way.

 

I still have a small hope that maybe someday, I’ll have a man who sees faded cuts on my arms and loves me more for it-that he’ll maybe kiss them and tell me how loved I am. That’d be great, but honestly I’m not holding my breath. I’m not being so pessimistic about that happening because I don’t believe Jesus will provide me with an amazing, God-fearing husband. The thing is though, is that I’ve already had someone step down and take that role for me. He took my burdens, my shame, my sins-and he sat with me and my box of alabaster and kissed my scars for me.

 

Jesus is literally that prince on a white horse and we are literally ALWAYS the damsel in distress. You see, God wants to hold you, he wants to see you vulnerable, and he wants to see you healed and whole. He literally will get down in the dirt with you, in your dirty, shameful pit of despair to guide you down the right path.

 

Take the adulterous woman who was thrown down at the very feet of Jesus. First off, prostitutes aren’t looked on very highly today, so let’s just imagine how lowly they were viewed in biblical times. Second, the Pharisees literally caught her in the act of having sex with a man that wasn’t her husband. They dragged this woman out of the house she was in, (nothing happened to the man I’m sure, but that’s going to be my only real feminist excerpt on this blog) I’m sure they literally dragged her through dirt and mud, and when you think about it-there’s a chance she was potentially dragged through manure considering animals would just wander the streets. So she’s dirty, I’m sure. Covered in dirt, considered unclean by the church-literally laying in the dirt- this woman was at the feet of the most high, perfect Son of God.

 

The coolest thing to me about this story is that Jesus kneels down in the dirt with her. Now, mind you, in Biblical times when a person was considered unclean-no one touched them. No one went near them, no one wanted anything to do with them, they were outcasts and not to be dealt with. Jesus doesn’t care about the rules though; he knelt down next to her, he talked to her, he valued her, and he set her free and forgave her of her sins.

John 8:10-11: Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

How many of us are hiding in the filth? Ashamed, and afraid that others might throw our shame out in the open, calling us out for our past. Jesus though, he’s changed all of that! Because of Jesus, you don’t have to be ashamed of your past. I was definitely one filthy, muddy, dirty, unclean, throw-me-in-the-mud kind of person prior to my relationship with Christ. I moved out of my parents house at 17 and moved in with my boyfriend at the time. I have shame, I have guilt, and I have sin, but I have found freedom, forgiveness, and grace in the Father’s arms.

 

I pray that you find the freedom that Jesus has to offer, the gift He so readily extends to anyone who wants to accept it; for grace to wash over your life like a flood; and for you to truly know your worth and how loved you are.