⁴ For he chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. 

In Mark 12 Jesus repeated a couple of verses from Deuteronomy that kind of sum up the way we’re supposed to live. He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” and “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.’ They’re pretty straightforward commands really. Love God with everything you can muster and love other people as much as you love yourself.

The problem I have those statements is that we’re not always very good at loving ourselves. In fact, it’s a concept that can be quite difficult to balance out. On the one hand it can be a healthy thing to acknowledge to ourselves who we are, what we’re like, what we’re good at and what we’re capable of but there’s a fine line between that and bragging. Add into that mix the pressure of modern society that suggests that nothing is good enough unless it’s perfect and we’re suddenly batting on a very sticky wicket.

Paul reminds us that our God and our Creator is above and way beyond all of that kind of thinking. He exists outside of the linear, time-based existence that we inhabit. He has seen the beginning and the end of all things. He knows exactly who each of is and he has done since before any of us even began. He chose us to be the people we are before any of us ever even drew breath.

Sure, life isn’t perfect. Few of us enjoy perfect health, none of us live free from mess, trouble worry or concern. None of us are perfect: in fact, truth to tell we’re probably all messed up in some way or another. But… we’re all special. God chose us to be so before He created the world. Even in all our mess and trouble He sees who He made us to be. And, whether we can see it or not Paul reminds us what He sees is beautiful. Jesus got rid of the mess, the trouble, the sin and the garbage that we’ve been dressing ourselves in since we got started. So, because of Him God sees beautiful people.

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Application:

Take a moment to remind yourself that because of the cross that Jesus surrendered Himself to die upon you have been made new again. When God looks at you he doesn’t see sin anymore, He sees His beautiful creation. His masterpiece.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank you for the cross. Thank you that you made each of us clean again. Thank you that you made me special.