Timothy Tennent ~ Marriage, Human Sexuality, & the Body: The Meaning of Our Original Nakedness
The utilitarian vision sees the body of a man or woman as an object which can be assessed like a car. Is it bright, new, shiny and full of power, or not? Is your body thin or fat; does it conform to the shapes we admire or not; is your hair the right texture and color or not; are your teeth shiny and straight or not? In the covenantal vision, the mystery and glory is that we have bodies, and those bodies are beautiful to God because they are living sacraments in the world, an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace, since all of the means of grace come through the physicality of the body.