We have a Christmas countdown nutcracker. It has little blocks at the bottom that you can change each day, counting down the days until Christmas. The only problem is, the blocks are missing a few numbers. So some days, I can switch the block on the left to the right position, using the correct numbers, and vice versa. This does not always work out, though. Some days, the countdown is not correct, due to the missing numbers.
I still love this nutcracker, though.
As I was looking at it one morning, rolling my eyes about not being able to interchange the numbers and make it work, Terry asked me if I wanted a new one? I said, “No, it’s okay. We can just skip the days where the numbers don’t work, and I’ll be here to remind you (and anyone else who asks, or doesn’t ask) how many days until Christmas.”
Sometimes, I think you and I are like our Christmas countdown nutcracker. We are missing a few essential pieces, yet we still have value in God’s eyes, and He loves us.
“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” - 1 John 4:9-10 (NIV)
God loved us, first. God loves us not because of our sin, but in spite of our sin. And while sin separates us from God, He still loves us, and forgives us, every single time we ask for forgiveness.
Flaws, mistakes, imperfections, mess-ups and all … God loves us. We are justified. As our precious pastor, Pastor Steve Lawes reminds us, “God loves us just as if we have never sinned.” Justification.
I look up now from my laptop and see that nutcracker, standing proudly with the wrong number of days until Christmas, and I smile because I still love it. More than that, though, I see it in a new perspective. This flawed nutcracker reminds me that God loves me, flaws and all.
What I see as horrific mistakes and painful acts of stupidity that could make me so unlovable, when I lay those things down at the foot of the Cross, Jesus picks them up and takes them permanently. He never throws them back in my face. The enemy tries to throw them back at me, but not Jesus.
When I look at myself, I see the flawed nutcracker. I’m missing some numbers, so to speak. But when God looks at me, He just loves me. He doesn’t hone in on my flaws, mistakes, sins and messes. He sees me as His chosen, loved, not forsaken, child of God; daughter of the One True King, and He loves me.
God doesn’t look at you like our flawed nutcracker, either. He sees you as His chosen, loved, not forsaken, child of God. The daughter or son of the One True King.
And He loves you, endlessly.