Does my skin wrinkle when wet?

Yesterday after church, Thaddeus and I spent about three hours at the pool.  It definitely felt like Summer as some of our neighbors joined us for a long time of play at the pool.  We stayed in the water for the entire three hours which caused an interesting phenomenon to happen:  Our skin wrinkled.  I have often wondered what causes this and I found two explanations.  

 #1 - Skin has two layers, epidermis (the outer layer) and dermis (the inner layer) Epidermis produces, sebum (an oily substance intended to keep water out of your skin). Extended time spent soaking in water causes sebum to rinse off. As the sebum decreases the epidermis begins to absorb water. This causes the surface area of the skin to swell. The Epidermis is tightly attached to the dermis so the epidermis compensates for the added area caused by the absorbed water by wrinkling.

OR~

#2 - There are 4 layers of epidermis -the outermost layer of which is the stratum corneum - the layer we see and feel. The stratum layer contains dead keratin cells. Extended time spent soaking in water causes the dead keratin cells to absorb water. This causes the surface area of the skin to swell. Because the epidermis is tightly attached to the dermis, the epidermis compensates for the added area caused by the absorbed water by wrinkling.

These are some pretty scientific sounding explanations.  Here's the bottom line:  Our bodies compensate for spending a vast amount of time in water.  The more we are in the water, the more our bodies have to compensate for that large amount of water.  So our environment has a dramatic effect on our bodies, which is visible but much of the change is happening below the surface of the skin.  The wrinkling is simply an outward manifestation of an inward change.

Does you skin wrinkle when you stay in the pool or the tub too long?  Yep, because God designed us that way.  I believe this is a great illustration of what happens to the follower of Christ who immerses himself too deeply in the world.  There is a minor outward manifestation which reflects a much deeper inward change.  We may still go to church, but we aren't serving.  We rarely if ever spend time in God's Word.  We become more concerned about our boss, friends or family than the opinion of God.  We justify living in a sinful situation and try to avoid dealing with it.  Inwardly, we are beginning to rot spiritually, though outwardly we are able to minimize the impact.  We may even be going through a crisis of belief, which is deeply affecting our faith, BUT rather than sharing with our church family, we just muddle through it alone.  We think our brothers and sisters in Christ would think we are failures if we actually admitted we sometimes struggled in our faith.

Romans 12:2 reminds us:  "Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the good and perfect will of God is."  The Bible reminds us that we are in process of being transformed.  The key to transformation:  Whatever we put into our minds is what we will reflect.  Hence, if we most often let the world be on our minds (i.e. the music we listen to, the TV shows/movies we want, the close friends we have, the site we go on-line, etc) then it brings an inward change with an outward manifestation.  Hence, our total lives begin to wrinkle.  However, the reverse is also true:  If we allow our minds to dwell on the things of God (i.e. daily quiet times, music we listen to, close friends we have, discussions we have, memorizing Scripture, prayer, fasting, etc.), the more our total lives will experience Galatians 5:22-23.  The fruit of the Spirit (Peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, etc.) are not goals for which we aim, but the outward manifestations of an inward change.  

So take a moment to examine your spiritual skin.  What does it look like?  What is reflected today?  Are you spending time renewing your mind in Christ or just going on with a busy life which precludes such a devotion?  May this Sip from the Well encourage you to immerse yourself in the things of Christ, which will bring a beautiful and lasting change in your life.