beloved.

June 10, 2010

Aching joints.  Tired eyes.  Fifteen hours straight cramped in a car.

Finally the five of us spilled out of our car triumphantly.  We had arrived at our long-anticipated destination!  We were at the beach.  A warm breeze welcomed us.  We walked excitedly across the wooden bridge and down the stairs until our feet hit the sand.  Wiggling my toes, I smiled.  What a beautiful feeling.

Running toward the shore, I looked at the horizon.  All I could see was black.  And waves.  Waves that built in the distance, but disintegrated into soft foam as it rolled slowly toward my sandy feet.  Perfect.

Looking up for the first time, I noticed the glittering white specks in the sky.  Stars.  So many of them!

I had just finished a book, Redeeming Love, on the drive.  In it, the husband referred to his prostitute-wife as “beloved”.  Each time I saw that word on the page, chills ran through me.  He considered her a priceless treasure.  He saw through her filthiness and imperfections and forgave her and loved her and brought hope and light and life to her darkness.

And as I walked along the shore of the beach, taking in the vastness of it all and wondering at its beauty, I couldn’t help but be reminded that Christ has done exactly that for me.  He looks at me, plain-old, dirty, worn me, and sees beauty in place of ashes.  He has transformed my guilt and sin.  He fills my previously shallow and hollow life with freedom and purpose and meaning.  He plans and directs my steps. 

And most of all, he calls me “Beloved”.

When I read words like, “He determines the number of the stars. He gives to all of them their names,” (Psalm 147:4), I cannot help but wonder, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).

My God is the God of the UNIVERSE.  He created the sun and the moon and the stars.  He set the world in motion.  He breathed things into being, and can take them away just as easily.  And I am His beloved.

“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!  If I would count them they are more than the sand.  I awake, and I am still with you.”  Psalm 139:17-18

Thank you for loving me.