The Other Half of the Story

"Consider the kind of extravagant love the Father has lavished on us—He calls us children of God! It's true; we are His beloved children." 1 John 3:1 (The Voice)

During the season of Lent, as we journey toward the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are postured toward self-examination, toward a recognition and acknowledgment of our deep and desperate need for a saviour. 
 
I need saving. There it is. I’m a mess and I need to be saved. I’m keenly aware of how misguided I can become… How selfish. How excessive. How insatiable. How restless. How unkind. How foolish. How bewildered. How lost. 

It’s not difficult to focus on our shortcomings. We’re quite practiced at it, really. Many of us learned from a young age that we need God because we are sinful, and we need Christ’s redemption to restore us to relationship with God. We learned to focus on the sin. When I look inside, it is easier, at first glance, to see my flaws than to see my beauty. For many of us, our failures speak to us more loudly than our worth.

It is true. Redemption is a central part of our story. I have failed. I need to be restored. But that’s only half of the story.   

The other half of the story is the truth that I am WORTH saving. There is something in me that is WORTH restoring. I am precious. This is the good news – the really GOOD news. That we are precious. That we are loved recklessly and wildly, passionately and desperately, by the God who creates us and sustains us, who prizes and pursues us, who restores and redeems and revives all that is broken and lost and wounded and marred and stained.

As people who are living in an earnest attempt to follow Christ, we are often much more prone to focus on the areas where we fall short of some ideal or standard, rather than on the incredible wooing of a God who, over and over and over and over says, “Come.” “Come to me.” “My love is steadfast and unending.” “I chose you.” “I know everything about you and I still choose you.”

My prayer for us all during this Easter season is that we would experience a renewed awakening to our preciousness. That we would bask in the extravagant love that led Christ to the cross. Would we grow in our awareness of our value, and embrace our core identity as the Beloved.

"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 (New Living Translation)

Arlene M.