On Sunday we learned from Luke 20 that Jesus REALLY wants us to know whose we are – that God’s name is written on the tag of our souls and that his heart is imprinted on ours. That’s what it means to be made in his image. So what difference does it make if we actually know that?
I recently met with a young woman who had greatest smile -- notice, I used the word "HAD" and not "HAS." Two of her friends dragged her in to see me. Wearing a baseball cap and baggy clothes, she was not smiling. Her friends watched like bodyguards, making sure she didn’t weasel out of telling the truth. She cried and cried as she confessed walking away from God, running down a path of lying, drugs, inappropriate relationships, and ultimately finding herself far from God. After an hour of her pouring out her heart, I really only had one thing to say: “You don’t know whose you are. You think you’re worthless so you treat yourself that way. God thinks you’re priceless and he sent Jesus to treat you that way.”
Donald Postema, in a book called Space for God, commends a great spiritual practie. He says to take five minutes a day and simply meditate in quiet on the words, “I belong to God.” Say them over and over, stretch them out, wrestle with the meaning, experience the depth – but whatever you do, let those words get deep into your soul.
Here are some questions for you to post responses. If you knew you mattered – that God claimed you by name and that he stamped his name onto you – how would that change you? What are the best ways to actually get it into your gut that you do indeed matter, because you belong to him? What works for you?
Posted on
Thu, May 8, 2008
by Bill White