Belonging

​Little Julie is ragged and dirty.  Two buttons are missing from her soiled dress.  Her hair is matted and she owns no brush. One shoe is missing.  What were once light blue sleeves are now gray. The frail fabric is torn in many places. She can only wink with one eye, and her mouth long ago lost its vibrant expression.  She’s been dragged by a dog, punched by teasing boys, and twice left outside in bone-chilling rainstorms.  For any casual passerby, she is all but useless—but not to Amy.  She carries Julie wherever she goes.  She tells her stories, puts her to bed, and kisses her hard-plastic cheeks.  Amy doesn’t see a worn-out doll.  Julie is her beautiful treasure and she loves her.  
 

Meditation
Ephesians 1:4,5—Long ago, even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.  His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.  And this gave Him great pleasure. (NLT)
 
Consider how amazing God is.  He looks down from heaven at creatures who are all sick with the disease of sin.  He watches us choose repeatedly to ignore Him.  He sees us suffer.  He hears our cries and feels our grief as we stumble along.  He knows our good thoughts as well as our bad intentions. He gives us the freedom to do as we please and sees us fill up our time with countless activities that seldom involve Him.  Yet, He does not turn His back on us, or drop us in some celestial dumpster.  

Consider how amazing God is.  Before He made us, He loved us!  Despite our shortcomings, He is so enamored with us that He went to the nth extreme to preserve His relationship with you and me.  Rather than label us a design flaw He sent His Son to experience what it means to be human.  He had Jesus model life as He intended for it to be lived.  But then in a shocker of eternal proportions, He let His innocent Son assume our shame, guilt, lawlessness, and every evil we could muster.  In the loneliest moment of all time He turned His back as Jesus was sacrificed brutally on a cross—killed by the very world He created.    
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Consider how amazing God is.  He wants to adopt us into His family!  Rather than dispatch a few asteroids to pulverize this rebellious planet, He offers us incredible terms—trust in His Son; follow His leadership—and He will forget our transgressions and forever remove our guilt.  Then, as if that grace was not enough, He sent His Holy Spirit to help us through our earthly journey.  Meanwhile, Jesus is preparing awesome homes for us in His own city.  His followers will receive new, perfect bodies that will never breakdown.  You see, we truly are His belonging.  Just imagine how much Amy loves her worn and ratty doll and magnify that a trillion times, and you’ll have a taste of how much God loves you and me.  Something to think about . . . in reveration! 
 
©2002 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)