Created. Beloved.

Let's start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read you begin with ABC...

That song will now be stuck in your head. Sorry.

     This morning I read out loud to myself. It was strange at first but as I kept reading out loud the words seemed to impact me more. It helped me focus. Far too often my good intention of sitting and reading the Bible ends up in me making a mental list of things I need to do that are more important than reading. How terrible am I?! Cleaning the bathroom, reading through email, Facebook...these are more important than sitting at the feet of my Savior and soaking up his words? I complain about being thirsty, about not hearing from the Lord when I really need a word, yet there He is with the cup of water I desperately need and I ignore him, taking from the cups of water that look fuller, easier, better. How terrible am I?!

Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

     Those words stopped me in my tracks this morning. The words that follow knocked me off my feet. I can not wrap my head around it, and I humbly think that we are not supposed to. I have a hard time realizing that I, Angela, humanoid, wretched sinner, am created in the image of God. Not just any god, but THE God who just said the words and it was so! He knew what Adam and Eve would do in the very next chapters of our story and the words still say "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." The God of love, mercy, justice, grace; in His image I am made. I need to begin again, and again, and again, with the knowledge that we are made in the image of God. Did you hear that? YOU are made in the image of God! I believe that if we truly wrapped this truth around our weary souls, our lives would radically change. No longer measuring ourselves against man, who is fallen, dirty, and wounded. Instead arming our minds and hearts with the incredible truth that we are His children, therefor we have His characteristics, we are his likeness. 

God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness Exodus 34:6
God is jealous for me Exodus 34:14, Deut. 4:24
God is holy Leviticus 19:2
God is not man, he is not a liar Numbers 23:19
God is merciful Deuteronomy 4:31
God is our strength Psalm 73:26
God is wonderful counselor, mighty, everlasting Father, prince of peace Isaiah 9:6
God is forgiving Micah 7:18
God is an avenger ;), he is just Nahum 1:2
God is with us Matthew 1:23, Romans 5:8
God is the God of the impossible Luke 1:37
God is good Luke 18:19
God is love 1 John 4:8 1 Corinthians 13:4
there are MANY more, I encourage you to study the character of God.

     Yes, Eve and Adam ate of the forbidden apple. Yes, we are fallen, sinful men and women, coming up short of His glory every day. I tend to focus on that part of the story and sometimes end there. But it is not the ending, it is a beautifully ugly chapter. In the midst of our sinfulness, God had a plan to redeem us from the very beginning. My prayer today is that we would join God's story of redemption and love. Whether you need to make the first step in accepting Christ as the one and only Savoir of your soul, or if you need to remember your first love today, may you and I revel in the wondrous, freely given, furious, love of God.


     My heart was given to God long ago, 18 years later I continue to pry my fingers open and give my heart back to the One who gave his heart for me. I would like for this messy journey to be clean and orderly, but I am discovering this is not God's way. He delights in taking my mess, your mess, and making it clean. How do you ask? Ask Him, He will show you how, He longs to show you how. He loves you friend.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28