The Roman architect Vitruvius proposed that the human body could perfectly fit inside both a circle and a square, with the navel at the centre of the circle and the outstretched arms matching the width of a square. In popular human anatomy, your height from head to toe is meant to be the same as the width of your arms in the outstretched position. At least Leonardo da Vinci thought so, for he took Vitruvius’s concept to depict the perfect renaissance man: balanced, proportionate, mature, perfect.

Unfortunately for some human bodies, the rectangle and the ellipse are more comfortable geometric sizes than the square and the circle. In fact, in some sports like basketball, it can be hugely advantageous to have your width greater than your height, that is, a bigger wingspan than your distance from head to toe. And so the ideal person might actually not be someone whose stretch and stature are in proportion, but what they do with their hands and feet.

That’s certainly true of the Nazarian Man. He once stretched his arms and legs in the pose shown by Leonardo in his famous drawing, but not in order to touch the circle or the square, but in love to touch the earth with heaven’s grace. Was Jesus’ body perfectly proportioned? One day we shall know. But heaven does not use renaissance measurements to determine perfection. How the hands and feet are used is what matters, and in that regard, Jesus stands as the Perfect Man.