Psalm 139:13-18 (NLT)

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank you for making me so complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it.  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered!  I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!  And when I wake up, you are still with me!

It is no wonder we all struggle, on some level, with a good sense of self or self-acceptance.  We are surrounded in our culture with messages telling us what we should do, what we should wear, what we should be, how we should look, where we should live, what we should own, with whom we should associate.  The messages of “shoulds” bombard us as our culture tries to define what we “should” be and how we “should” live.  Every day, we are faced with the idea that without the ‘things’ of modern culture we will come up short.  Our world drives home the point that we still have a lot we need to own or do  or be before we are going to feel a sense of contentment and happiness.  We just will never measure up to any of our popular cultural goals – we will never be good enough.  It is an exhausting and never-ending battle.

The Good News

But the good news, God’s Good News is this…He knows us and has always known us, even before we were born.  Not only does he know us, but he loves us – just the way we are – unconditionally.  “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God….and when I wake up, you are still with me!”

God knows you.  He always has known you and loved you and He promises that He will always love you.  As you were being woven in your mother’s womb, God defined you.  He gave you the wonderment and passions that He knew you would need.  He filled you with a capacity to live a life of love.  He knows what He created you to be.

It is good news to know that you are unconditionally loved, but bad news to know that you are letting outside junk define you.  How easy it is for you to let junk food, junk news, junk relationships, junk thoughts fill your heart’s definition rather than God and His love.  

Life happens!  

You are bombarded with humanness and hurts that start altering that glorious definition that God gifted to you.  As a human being, you fall prey to the messages of this world and you start losing sight of the self that God created in you.  Life’s journey affords you with the opportunity to find your way back on the path of God’s definition.  The more your personal relationship with God grows and deepens, the more clearly your God definition becomes to you.  The closer you live in balance with God’s definition, the more joy, happiness and contentment you will begin to experience each and every day of your life.  That is God’s desire for you.  That is what He has woven into your heart.  He knows what is good for you.

God loves us all!

What is even more profound is that His love is for everyone.  No one is exempt from His love.  Each and every one of us is loved this way and is known this way by God.  Our God is that big…His love is that great!  He loves us so much that He willingly suffered and died to pay for our sins…that is unconditional love. 

I sometimes am left in awe when I think about the power of God’s love – for me as an individual – but more importantly for all of us.  What would the world look like if we all embraced God’s definition for us, allowed His love to flow into us and then through us to each other?  How would we live life differently? 

We are all wonderfully made, with the gift of unconditional love from God.  Can you take this view of love from God and apply it to the people you see in the world?  Can you begin looking through the lenses of love and compassion and realize that you aren’t alone?  Take a moment and be reminded of God’s love for everyone and that He created us to enjoy each other, to enrich each others’ lives and to love each other rather than abusing, destroying, manipulating and using each other.

Regardless of our differences, our creator linked us together by weaving us into a life of love. How we understand and live that love is our spiritual journey and growth in relationship with God.  It is what God has created us to be – love.