My body is of the lanky variety, and I have received jokes and criticism over the course of my life about the shape of my body. "You're so skinny, man!" "What a beanpole". Such words can have a way of implantin8g themselves in the recipient's heart, and I was no exception. Over time as I grew up, I became less and less comfortable with my body, and felt more and more shame regarding it.

Now Carla, on the other hand, has a more heavenly view of the human frame. She knows that we are all created in God's image, that we are all a work of art, and that the Creator don't make mistakes. Carla helped me see that many of the visual elements of the world that I am by nature drawn to--the colors of Tuscany, rusts and clays and burgundies, as well as teals and greens, the shape of structures and clean lines, skyscrapers and modern architecture, the intersection of gradients of color with geometric lines--are appealing to me because they mirror back to me the beauty of the body God has given me. My body is no longer a"beanpole" or "stick", it is an elongated structure, strong and linear, as strong and useful and beautiful as the Golden Gate Bridge, perfectly suited to the purpose that God has planned for me.

Let Carla speak words of truth into your soul, be open to the idea that perhaps your body is not a mistake either, and your life will never be the same.