The Doctrine of the Belly Button

The content of this article originates with the belly button. “The navel (clinically known as the umbilicus, commonly known as the belly button) is a protruding, flat, or hollowed area on the abdomen at the attachment site of the umbilical cord” (Wikipedia). In 2005, a softball “caught” me in the belly button before I could catch it. It ruptured my navel, and I had to have surgery for an umbilical hernia! 

Did it ever occur to you that Adam and Eve didn’t have a belly button? The late preacher, Ed Bousman, said, “Perhaps God put one on them for style.” Think about this, Adam and Eve could have shown their children, grandchildren, et al. that they, unlike all their family, didn’t have a belly button. Adam could have shown the boys/men and Eve could have shown the girls/women for modesty’s sake. This fact could have been a visible testimony to how they arrived in this world different from everyone else! 

In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul was in Athens, Greece, preaching to people who believed in numerous gods. “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols” (Acts 17:16)i. In his sermon, Paul started with the creation and the Creator to reason with these idol worshipers. He said,  

“He [God] has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings” (Acts 17:26). Adam is everyone’s grandfather, and Eve is everyone’s grandmother. There may be many ethnicities and cultures in the world, but there is only ONE race—the human race. I suggest we cease and desist with talking about races, “African American,” etc. Several years ago, during the Colin Kaepernick kneeling saga, I was at Oriole Park at Camden Yards seated next to a black man. He said to me, “They call us African Americans, but I never had any business in Africa.” Then we both stood up for the National Anthem. 

The Doctrine of the Belly Button is simply this: Because you have a belly button, your life is not your own to do with it as you please. Our belly button is a reminder that there was a day when we were attached to our mother who gave us life. We did not create ourselves, someone else did, namely our parents. Their parents created them, and their parents create them. One day Jesus answered some critics, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’” (Matthew 19:4). That “He” is God. Your belly button is a testimony to the creation of God! You came from Him, and He has a right to tell you what to do. 

Several times, I have asked students in a Bible study this question, “Do non-Christians have any obligation to God?” Occasionally, the answer that has been given is “no.” That is the wrong answer. The belly button is a reminder everyone owes their life to someone else and ultimately to God. Paul said it like this to the Athenians, God’s purpose was, “that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him” (Acts 17:27-28). God’s purpose for every person is to seek, find, and serve Him. Are you doing that? 

If you created a living being, a “Frankenstein” of your own making, then you would have control over that being. You made it – you own it. If you created yourself, then you would have no one to answer to but yourself. However, your belly button is a reminder you formerly belonged to someone else. 

When you realize you are not here for your own wants and desires, but for God’s honor and glory, then your purpose in life becomes clear. The Lord was giving “belly button” doctrine when He said, “everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him” (Isaiah 43:7). God said everyone was created, formed, made for His glory. The most-important question we should be asking ourselves is this, “What does my Creator expect from me?” 

Some people do various things with their belly button. They get it pierced, or they get a tattoo that utilizes their belly button for some scene they want to promote. They think “It’s my body and my belly button; I will do with it as I please!” However, Paul said, “the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” (1 Corinthians 6:13). Your body exists to serve the Lord; your belly button won’t let you escape this fact. 

When a baby is born, one of the first things the doctor does is cut the umbilical cord so the child can live independently from its mother. Here is the truth—most people want to “cut the cord” from God because they don’t want anyone telling them how to run their own life. You may think “This is my body and my life; I will do with it as I please!” Here is the problem with that: our belly button is a reminder that the Creator has expectations of us. The problem with most people is they want to “cut the cord” from the very One who gave them life. This is the biggest mistake anyone can ever make! Think about this every time you are washing your belly button!