"I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well." -Psalm 139:14
We as the children of God, individually, and collectively are the works of the Almighty God's hand. His Word is full of reassuring statements about His love for us individually. In verses 17-18 the Psalmist writes:
"How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You."
This should be a great reminder to us all of how vast the Love of Christ is. I feel sometimes though like we can take these verses and act like they are meant for us only, like the Lord has some kind of special treatment for us alone. In some sense this is true in that the Lord's thoughts for EACH ONE of US are unique and I believe that no "calling" in life is exactly duplicated. But in the grand scheme of things, just because we are all called to different things in life doesn't mean that God plays favorites. The heart of Jesus leaves no room for partiality, this was perfectly displayed by Christ's response whilst on the cross. "... Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do..." is what Jesus had to say while He carried all of OUR sin and burden. Even when He was being mocked and killed He went out of His way to make a blanket statement to show that the work of the cross is for anyone who will receive it!
God loves us ALL so much and it has been on my heart lately that we are all created equally. That doesn't mean that we can blame our sinful ways or contrary lifestyles on how we were created. That simply means that in the beginning we were created in the likeness of God and we are the ones who continue to "fall far from the tree" so to speak. I can't help but think that the Lord, when He looks at any one of us sees the child that He created to worship Him. Our sin must grieve Him so much because at any time we have the opportunity to leave them at the cross.
I have been think about how much in my own heart and mind I tend to pick people apart sometimes. Unfortunately I am not always the first person to take those thoughts captive when they arise. There is so much negativity when we sit there and criticize how people look or act, and I am certain that some of this comes from insecurity. What if instead of proceeding these critical thoughts with negative actions, we checked our own hearts to see where the root of this superiority complex comes from. If we could tare out the root of our heart's problems it might allow the Lord to truly work in our lives.
Lord, search my heart for inconstancies and remove the root of my wicked ways!
