Just as you are, and who you could be.
So, recently I bought a 30 day devotional called “Just Like Jesus” by Max Lucado. I really like Max, he has a nice story-telling style and I’ve always found that really impactful. I opened this devotional and started reading the first entry and was greeted with an interesting beginning.
God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus.
Thats an incredibly simple statement that really hits me hard. We rarely seem to bridge the idea that God wants us to be more then we are, and the idea that God loves us how we are. The beginning of Hosea has always been one of my favorite stories. In the book God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute, since Israel has whored themselves out to other gods. The next chapter then goes on to describe how the people have forgotten God, but God is still with them even still. Hosea 3 is what I find most interesting though. Hosea’s wife has gone back to her old ways and has been sleeping around. Does Hosea divorce her? No, he payed for her. The chapter isn’t specific, but Hosea pays the equivalent of the price of a slave to buy his wife, so I assume she somehow landed herself on the slave market. Think about it, you find out your wife is whoring herself out, and not only do you still it in you to love her, but you pay quite a sum of money to bring her back to you. Thats what God does for us. No matter how many times we’ve spit in His face He paid to let us be free.
People aren’t perfect, God knows that, but that doesn’t mean He doesn’t want you to get as close as possible. God doesn’t have any desire for you to be a robot. We are all unique so that we can enjoy our differences, but just because God wants you to become more then you are doesn’t mean He doesn’t love you.
