As I did last time, I base my post today on a recent news story. This one tells of a certain woman who made a decision to cut herself off from her parents – literally! It seems that Paulina Casillas Landeros, age 23, of Guadalajara, Mexico, had a falling out with her with her family - especially her parents - because they disapproved of her way of life.
They were not in favor of her tattoos and other extreme body modifications, such as a back corset – where piercings are created on either side of the spine, laced with ribbons and pulled tight. Neither were they impressed by her split tongue.
As a result, in a fit of anger, she undertook a drastic act of revenge against her estranged family. Desiring to "cut all unions from everything and everyone", she literally had her belly button surgically removed from her body out of spite. Her purpose was to symbolize that she was no longer connected to them in any way.
Afterwards, she sent her detached belly button to her then-boyfriend as a "present". After all, he had encouraged her in her rebellion against her parents.
However, three years have now passed and Landeros has since made up with her family. She now regrets her decision, describing it as "reckless and impulsive". In fact, she now realizes just how irreversible the decision to remove her belly button was.
She also now claims that "the professional gave me very bad advice on how to take care of the trauma so it got infected." According to Landeros, "I was suffering. I spent days in bed as if I were quarantined. I couldn’t stretch, push, stand up or laugh. It gradually healed itself but not 100 percent – it will never close entirely."
Irrespective of the pain involved, Landeros says she knew exactly what she wanted to do with her belly button after it was removed. She decided to turn it into a sort of token of love for her then-boyfriend, Daniel Ramirez.
Now, however, she has since lost both a boyfriend and a belly button! And she lives with regrets each and every day for the rash and foolish way in which she behaved. "I do regret it when I put myself in my mum’s position, it must have been devastating for her, she was so sad."
As I read this, I could not help but think about the first few chapters of the Bible. Genesis chapters 1 and 2 recount how God created the world and all that is in it. It also recounts how men and women were created at the very last as the crowning glory of all God's creative work.
Unique among God’s creation in that they bore the Image of God, Adam and Eve were placed in a bountiful garden called Eden and allowed to live an idyllic life. God’s only requirement was that they obey His words to them.
Nonetheless, they chafed under His word, and in chapter 3, were enticed by the Devil in the guise of a serpent. As a result, they rebelled against their Creator, permanently disfiguring their Divine image with the blemish of sin in the process.
By chapter 4, of course, they had already realized their mistake. But the damage had been done. And the enamoring and enticement of the evil one was to fill them with regret ever thereafter.
Of course, Adam and Eve’s story is everyone’s story. As such, it is my story; and it is your story. As the Old Testament prophet Isaiah puts it (chapter 53, verse 6), "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way…" And just like Adam and Eve, we all bear the scars of our willful rejection of our Creator and His word.
How sad would be our plight if this is where the Biblical story ended. But, praise God, it is not. There is more to the story – much more. The rest of the story is that God sent His Son to fix what we could not fix. Jesus Christ, the Divine Physician, redeemed us in our broken state by giving His life as an atonement for our sins.
Through Christ, therefore, the Bible tells us that we are a whole new creation! All that sin has marred and disfigured has been made whole again by Jesus Christ! And because of this, we can live life without regrets! As the Apostle Paul puts it (2 Corinthians 5:17-18): "17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…"
And that, my friend, is reason enough to live life without regrets!
NEWS STORY SOURCE: https://www.foxnews.com/health/woman-regrets-removing-belly-button-sending-it-to-boyfriend.
SCRIPTURAL SOURCES: https://biblehub.com/isaiah/53-6.htm and https://biblehub.com/niv/2_corinthians/5.htm.
They were not in favor of her tattoos and other extreme body modifications, such as a back corset – where piercings are created on either side of the spine, laced with ribbons and pulled tight. Neither were they impressed by her split tongue.
As a result, in a fit of anger, she undertook a drastic act of revenge against her estranged family. Desiring to "cut all unions from everything and everyone", she literally had her belly button surgically removed from her body out of spite. Her purpose was to symbolize that she was no longer connected to them in any way.
Afterwards, she sent her detached belly button to her then-boyfriend as a "present". After all, he had encouraged her in her rebellion against her parents.
However, three years have now passed and Landeros has since made up with her family. She now regrets her decision, describing it as "reckless and impulsive". In fact, she now realizes just how irreversible the decision to remove her belly button was.
She also now claims that "the professional gave me very bad advice on how to take care of the trauma so it got infected." According to Landeros, "I was suffering. I spent days in bed as if I were quarantined. I couldn’t stretch, push, stand up or laugh. It gradually healed itself but not 100 percent – it will never close entirely."
Irrespective of the pain involved, Landeros says she knew exactly what she wanted to do with her belly button after it was removed. She decided to turn it into a sort of token of love for her then-boyfriend, Daniel Ramirez.
Now, however, she has since lost both a boyfriend and a belly button! And she lives with regrets each and every day for the rash and foolish way in which she behaved. "I do regret it when I put myself in my mum’s position, it must have been devastating for her, she was so sad."
As I read this, I could not help but think about the first few chapters of the Bible. Genesis chapters 1 and 2 recount how God created the world and all that is in it. It also recounts how men and women were created at the very last as the crowning glory of all God's creative work.
Unique among God’s creation in that they bore the Image of God, Adam and Eve were placed in a bountiful garden called Eden and allowed to live an idyllic life. God’s only requirement was that they obey His words to them.
Nonetheless, they chafed under His word, and in chapter 3, were enticed by the Devil in the guise of a serpent. As a result, they rebelled against their Creator, permanently disfiguring their Divine image with the blemish of sin in the process.
By chapter 4, of course, they had already realized their mistake. But the damage had been done. And the enamoring and enticement of the evil one was to fill them with regret ever thereafter.
Of course, Adam and Eve’s story is everyone’s story. As such, it is my story; and it is your story. As the Old Testament prophet Isaiah puts it (chapter 53, verse 6), "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way…" And just like Adam and Eve, we all bear the scars of our willful rejection of our Creator and His word.
How sad would be our plight if this is where the Biblical story ended. But, praise God, it is not. There is more to the story – much more. The rest of the story is that God sent His Son to fix what we could not fix. Jesus Christ, the Divine Physician, redeemed us in our broken state by giving His life as an atonement for our sins.
Through Christ, therefore, the Bible tells us that we are a whole new creation! All that sin has marred and disfigured has been made whole again by Jesus Christ! And because of this, we can live life without regrets! As the Apostle Paul puts it (2 Corinthians 5:17-18): "17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…"
And that, my friend, is reason enough to live life without regrets!
NEWS STORY SOURCE: https://www.foxnews.com/health/woman-regrets-removing-belly-button-sending-it-to-boyfriend.
SCRIPTURAL SOURCES: https://biblehub.com/isaiah/53-6.htm and https://biblehub.com/niv/2_corinthians/5.htm.