Beautiful in His eyes-

To Sadie Beth, who I thought just might need this today.

Sadie Beth, you are not perfect. I am not perfect. But you have a heart that longs for God. If you didn't, you wouldn't be so very hard on yourself about being so imperfect. It is our imperfection that Jesus changed into beautiful perfection that is ours to inherit, and will one day be fulfilled.

You are beautiful because of what God has given you. A whole, pure, white, clean heart and the Holy Spirit indwelling. You are beautiful because Jesus lives in you. You are beautiful because you love Jesus, and His light radiates from your face. You are beautiful because deep inside, you are desperate for God, and desperate for His glory.

I don't want a "new you" for this new year. God doesn't want a "new you", He doesn't NEED a "new you", and He doesn't ASK for a "new you". He just asks for YOU. For your surrender and whole heart. He knows you can't do it alone, and He knows you are gonna fall flat and trip and fall down the mountains in ugly ways. Because He knows we aren't perfect (remember?). But He takes us as we are: imperfect, ugly, desperate, wounded, stumbling children with blindfolds on, and He gives us the Holy Spirit and dons us in white robes of majesty as we kneel at His feet and say "Thy will be done, O Lord.". We don His beauty when we surrender to His reign.

He loves us with an unchanging and unending love that will never ever run dry. It will never be quenched, or put out, or cut off. He loves us more than all the earth and all the heavens. He loves us more than the angels and the cherubim and seraphim and the sun and the moon. He loves His redeemed and will never let them go. He will never forsake His little children.

He longs for us to know in full His love for us, and one day we will, but until then, we must grasp as much as we can, that God loves us yesterday, today and tomorrow, forever and always, He loves us. He bought us, and redeemed us with the price of the One He loved best, His own Son! He knows the sin we do, He plans every step until we SEE HIS FACE.

We are His. The redeemed. The children of God. Know it, embrace it, rejoice in it.

Because of Christ ... We, my dearest Sadie Beth .... WE ARE BEAUTIFUL.

"Before you ever took a breath, long before the world began,

Of all the wonders He possessed, there was one more precious!

Of all the earth and skies above,

You're the one He madly loves,

Enough to die!

You're beautiful, You're beautiful,

You are made for so much more than all of this,

You're beautiful, You're beautiful,

You are treasured, You are sacred,

You are His.

You're beautiful ...

In His eyes."

"Beautiful" by MercyMe

I think you are pretty wonderful myself, and you are beautiful to me, Sadie Beth. :)

I love you,

~ Jean Marie ~