Just As I Am   

When God accepts a sinner, He is, in fact, only accepting Christ. He looks into the sinner's eyes, and He sees His own dear Son's image there, and He takes him in.  Charles Spurgeon

I was working a Farmer’s Market this weekend with my parents and I saw a dog.  Seeing a dog is not unusual at this particular market because Farmer’s Markets are great places for people to get out and shop while still being able to bring your dog for a little retail therapy and interaction with other pooches.  There is Tripod who only has three legs and he gets around really well for a three legger.  Then there are the greyhounds who always come to our booth and fall asleep in the middle of the booth.  I mean we do sell lavender so it makes sense.  There is Winston the overly large bulldog who just had back surgery.

There was a young woman there with this dog and just looking at him made me smile.  He was not your typical purebred pooch.  He had the face of a chihuahua, the body and tail of a beagle and he had an under bite.  When you looked at his face his canine teeth curled up on either side of his face over his top teeth.  He was just so cute.

One of the things I love about this market is the people and their pets. Most of the animals you see are all rescue dogs.  Most of the time rescue dogs are the ones that no one else wants.  They are the unadoptable.  The sad thing is most often these are the ones who are the most loving but because they aren’t registered purebreds, most people won’t look at them twice, let alone adopt them. 

I started thinking about how God looks at us.  You could say none of us are purebreds either, but God loves each of us as if we were the only one.  Sometimes all we look at is the outer shell and we forget about the very heart of the person.  God looks at us and says “you are a child of mine”.  When we look at it from the perspective that God loved each of us enough to sacrifice His only Son for us, that is an amazing love.  We were created in God’s image.  That means every person you see is God’s creation.  It doesn’t matter if I have one leg or two, an over bite or under bite, straight teeth or crooked.  He loves me anyway.   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, sometimes we look at other people and find them unworthy of our time based on just how a person looks.  Help me to see others from Your eyes.  If I am too busy looking at what the world considers perfect or beautiful, I just may miss one of your hidden treasures.  I praise You for loving me just as I am.          

Scripture:  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.  Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”  Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,  nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:31-39