When I look back over my own life, I’m astounded by the way God has used my gifts, my talents, my decisions, my life circumstances, even my mistakes to put me exactly where He wanted. . . . Your story will be different from mine—constructed by God from the raw materials of your own life and your response to God’s calling.
But you can be confident that when God looks at you,
He sees you dancing beyond your circumstances, whatever they are—
-living the life He has already prepared for you.
He will put you where you need to be … if you pay attention and obey His call.
But what if you don’t obey? What if you rebel or lose your nerve or just don’t understand what He’s trying to do?
I know there have been times in my life when I have done all three. And while I don’t understand all the ways God works, I have come to believe these things with all my heart:
Nothing can happen to us that the Father is not aware of.
Nothing can happen to us that He can’t use to further His kingdom.
We can pull away from God. We can try to hide from Him. We can even make choices that separate us from Him forever.
But none of this stops God from looking at us through the eyes of love. And none of it will delay the coming of His kingdom.
I believe that God has a plan for your life, a specific place for you in His future. But I also believe that the specific unfolding of God’s plan is fluid and subject to change. God, like a master Artist, adjusts His plan as we make our choices in life. When we smudge the painting, He works our smudge into the master design, using even our sins and our mistakes for His purposes.
If you keep your focus on God, He will put you exactly where you need to be. But even if you lose focus, if you’re disobedient and lose your way, you can turn back to Him and still trust Him to use all your pain and mistakes to put you where you need to be.
God is infinitely creative, infinitely willing to go to whatever lengths to help you dance beyond your circumstances into His future.
And He does it because of the way He sees you. Because … you’re worth it.
This to me is the heart of the gospel, the heart of what God sees in you. When the God of the universe looks at you, He sees someone who is infinitely worth all His love and time and trouble. Someone who is:
• worth trying again and again to reach.
• worth teaching, even when you’re stubborn or rebellious or don’t get it.
• worth disciplining, even when you resist.
• worth waiting faithfully for—as the Father waited for the prodigal son.
• worth seeking out—as the shepherd searched for his lost sheep.
• worth the trouble of redeeming.
• worth forgiving, again and again.
• worth dying for.
Because He really does see you—your past, your present, your possibilities. He is painfully aware of your sins and your failures but also rejoices over your hidden good deeds and your best intents. He cherishes your true self—the spark of divine in you—and delights in your human particularity. He sees you accurately, from the inside out. And you are enough for Him, just as you are.
If you have trouble believing that, look at the facts:
As the Father, He made you and adopted you into his family.
As the Son, He thought you were worth dying for.
As the Spirit, He chooses to lives within you.
As the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, He sees for you a role in His ever-unfolding story.
Adapted from The God Who Sees You by Tammy Maltby (with Anne Christian Buchanan). Copyright 2012 David C. Cook. Used with permission. Permission required to reproduce. All rights reserved.
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