Emma Nissen - Flesh and Bone

Reflection

To be flesh and bone is to be finite, breakable and mortal, a fact modern life often distracts us from until illness, ageing or grief bring it sharply back into focus. Scripture does not shy away from this vulnerability; the psalmist writes that God 'remembers that we are dust' (Psalm 103:14), treating human frailty with tenderness rather than judgement. A song that names the body so directly, flesh and bone rather than something more abstract like soul or spirit, grounds faith in the physical reality most people actually live in, aches, limits and all. This matters theologically too, since Christianity does not treat the body as an unfortunate shell to be escaped but as something God himself took on in the incarnation and promises ultimately to redeem. Music that dwells honestly on physical fragility, rather than skipping straight to triumphant spiritual language, offers a needed kind of honesty, one that makes space for weakness while still pointing towards a hope that includes the body, not just the soul.

Questions to sit with

• How do you make peace with the limits and frailty of your own body?
• Does your faith feel like it includes your physical life, or mainly your spiritual one?
• What comfort do you find in the idea that God took on flesh and bone himself?