Dear Aurora

Dear Aurora,                                               March 7, 2014

Tonight, while I was knitting, your Daddy came in and asked what I was making.   

“A scarf?” he asked.  He loves scarves!
“Nope,” I grinned.
“A sweater?”
“Nope.”
“Socks?”
“Nope.”
“Gloves?”
“Nope.”  He’s not very good at guessing, is he?  Heehee.
“I give up.”
“A blanket,” I told him.  “I hope she likes it.”  (Isn't it pretty, pink and blue and purple?  All different colors, like an aurora in the sky.) 
“She?  Is there something you need to tell me?”
I giggled, knowing he would say something like that.  Ever since I’ve joked around about being pregnant, he’s been on high alert.  “No, silly.  I knew you would think that.  I’m just knitting this for Aurora because I can…and because I want to.”

My darling daughter, whenever God decides to bring you into our lives, I want you to know something.  Right now, as I write this, you have not even been conceived yet.  But, your Daddy and I have already picked out your name, and we are already looking forward to having you in our lives.  You are already precious to us.  You are already loved by us. 

I can only imagine that this is sort of what it was like for God before He created the world and us in it.  In the book of Jeremiah, God tells us that “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”  He knows everything about you.  He knows how many hairs you will have on your head, what color your eyes will be, what sorts of things you will like and dislike, even what every single day of your life will be like because He has already numbered them all for you.

God knows you and loves you more personally and intimately than anyone ever will…even more than your Daddy and me.  We hope and pray that as you get older you come to know how precious you truly are to Him and to us, and how much we desire to see you grow into a beautiful woman of God.

With love now and forever,
Mommy         

Made by Love, with Love, for Love

In light of the upcoming debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, I’d like to use this post to re-share some thoughts that God placed on my mind.  

 

This morning, I was daydreaming, as I like to do, when I was struck by this epiphany: “Made by Love, with Love, for Love.”  As I thought about it more, I realized that the whole of our existence is summed up by this little phrase.  The more I meditated on it, the warmer and fuzzier and happier I felt inside. 

1)  We were made by Love – Love Himself created us: “God is love” (1 John 4:16), and “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27)!  Can you imagine it?  You yourself were thought out, crafted, formed, and set apart from everyone else on earth by the very hands of Love. 

2)  We were made with Love – “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:14).  In this verse, the word “fearfully” in Hebrew translates to “with great reverence, heart-felt interest, respect.”  This carries very much the same meaning as when we say, “Fear the Lord.”  It does not mean that we are afraid of Him; rather that we are in awe and have great reverence for who He is.  The word “wonderfully” means just that: “unique, set apart, marvelous.”

 

3)  We were made for Love – to love God and others (Luke 10:27); to be loved by Him, and to bring Him pleasure, for His glory.  We were made not to love ourselves and our empty passions but to love the One who made us, who is worthy of all our love and praise and worship.  We were made for His good pleasure – not that we are toys or objects of amusement; rather, that we were made to be in union with Him, in a relationship, and He desires for us to do so willingly, out of our love and thankfulness and reverence for Him, our Creator.        

Ladies and gentlemen, I say all this to encourage you and point you toward what truly matters:  Your beauty and worth in and to Christ.

Let me just clarify –

I didn’t always believe I was beautiful or worth anything.  In fact, for a long time, I believed the exact opposite – that I was worthless and ugly.

But God. 
But God pursued me.  Had He not, I would still be where I was.  “[I] love because He first loved [me].” (1 John 4:19)  And we can only love because He first loved us.        

For those of you who doubt or have yet to realize just how precious your life is, these truths are especially for you.

1)       Your life is a gift. 
God didn’t have to create you but He chose to out of love.  Every breath you take is a gift from Him.  “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”  (Genesis 2:7) 

  

2)    Your life is unique.
You are the only you that there will ever be.  You are uniquely set apart for His glory and special purposes.  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  (Jeremiah 29:11) 

3)    Your life is worth Christ’s.
Christ died to save you from your sins.  We have no hope, no life, apart from Him.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16)

To deny that there is any beauty in the world is to deny the handiwork of a Master Creator, deny the miracle of your own existence, and deny that your life has any purpose.

I am blessed beyond measure by God.  I have a family who loves me, friends who care for me, and an adoring man who treasures me for and helped me see the gift that I am.  That is more than I deserve, and more than I could’ve asked for.