Written by Dawn Rutan
I keep a list of possible writing ideas, and I had noted a verse that I’d intended to comment on around Christmas. However, another verse came up recently and I don’t feel like waiting 10 months. Besides which, Christmas and Easter are intimately related and are relevant to every day.
In Luke 2:14 the angels announce, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased” (ESV). This about nine months after Gabriel told Mary, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30). Did you ever think about what it means to find favor with God or to be pleasing to Him? I remember vividly a conversation I had in college when I told someone I thought I had disappointed God. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a good answer for me, but I later learned that I can’t disappoint God when He knows me better than I know myself.
The Apostle Paul brought this to light in Romans 5:10, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life,” and Ephesians 2:1-10, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked… But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us… made us alive together with Christ.” Not only were we enemies of God, but we were sinful corpses. That certainly doesn’t present any great case for us to be “those with whom He is pleased,” particularly when that angelic announcement came years before Christ’s reconciling death on the cross. And yet—He came, He died, He rose again out of His great mercy and love for a bunch of deadbeats.
John Ortberg comments in Love Beyond Reason, “As Lewis Smedes put it, it may be a very bad thing that I needed God to die for me, but it is a wonderful thing that God thinks I’m worth dying for. We may be ragged, but we must never confuse raggedness with worthlessness” (23). Our worth is not measured by what we do or fail to do, but by the fact that God has claimed us as His own. On those days when shame says, “You can’t do anything right,” we are still worth the cross of Christ. And on those days when pride says, “You scored big this time,” our worth to God hasn’t changed a bit.
Richard Foster, in his book Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, shares the story of a man who meets with a spiritual advisor. Day after day he was told to meditate on Luke 1:26-38. After several frustrating days, “Though Jim could barely believe it, the angel’s word to Mary seemed to be a word for him as well: ‘You have found favor with God.’ Mary’s perplexed query was also Jim’s question: ‘How can this be?’ And yet it was so, and Jim wept in the arms of a God of grace and mercy” (145).
I’m sure I’m not the only one who needs frequent reminders of the immeasurable, unchangeable love of God for me. I can’t disappoint God, but I can sure disappoint myself, and my disappointment colors the way I see everything else. I imagine that at times I’m so busy rehearsing my failures that I don’t even hear God repeating, “I love you. I love you. I love you.” It’s one thing to remember that following God is worth it all, but He’s also reminding us “Child, you are worth it all.” God is never watching us and thinking, “Why did I give up My Son for these dumb people?!” No, He just keeps on giving grace and mercy, drawing us back into His loving arms, investing Himself in us for eternity. From our perspective that may seem like a pretty poor investment, but somehow He will make it all pay off in the end.
A college friend introduced me to an unpublished second verse to the chorus “More Precious Than Silver” from God’s perspective:
Child, you are more precious than silver,
Child, you are more costly than gold,
Child, you are more beautiful than diamonds,
And nothing I desire compares with you.
“Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows… Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!” (Luke 12:7, 24).
© 2016 Dawn Rutan. The views stated may or may not reflect the beliefs of the pastor or leadership of Dulin’s Grove Church.
