Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. Ephesians 1:3-8
Wednesday is Hump Day. By now we have come to grips with the fact that a new week is fully upon us and we still have three more days to go. When it comes to my job, it is usually the most productive day of my week.
It is nice to begin a Wednesday with a reminder of how blessed we are.
I am one of those “eldest children” in the family who can do the math. I realize that the American ideal is that two kids go to college, get great jobs, get established in their careers, begin to build up a bit of a nest egg, find a great person, date an appropriate length of time so they fully know what they are getting into, get married, move out of “their” places into “their” place, and finally decide they are ready to bring a child into the world.
It didn’t work that way with me. I was an accident. My mom once pointed out the gravel road where I was conceived. It was my fault that my mom dropped out of high school. I was the reason that my parents got married; a marriage that was doomed from the start even though it produced three more children before it ended.
There is no rational reason why I should have assumed responsibility for all of that given that the fault began accruing when I was an embryo. But I did. So have millions of other children. We are victim to the false belief that we are unwanted accidents.
So it is wonderful on Wednesday to be reminded that God works in mysterious ways, that God can redeem anything, even a festive night on the town that ends on a furtive gravel road. Regardless of how we came into the world, God “destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”
Through the years I have spent many hours revisiting my origins and the effects it has had on my life. I’m grateful for all the listening ears through the years who have helped me. I’m grateful that I have eyes to read and ears to hear the good news that comes to me through the real source of my being: In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.
Happy Wednesday!
Let us pray: Dear Lord, before the foundations of the world were laid in place you imagined us and the significance we would play in your grand design. You heal our brokenness, forgive our fallenness, redeem our purposes, and bless our identity. Thank you for adopting us into the family of your love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Daily Devotions 
September 24, 2014 at 4:57 pm |
I have spent most of my life believing …. had I been a boy, my family would have been happier and there would have been a farmer to continue the tradition of farming the land. As it is, I’m a woman living in the City (with good farmers still farming the land) and on good days know that God made me just as I am on purpose. Your perspective is, as always, shining of vulnerability and God’s love…. always good. Thank you!
September 24, 2014 at 5:43 pm |
A men
September 24, 2014 at 9:30 pm |
What a beautiful prayer. We sometimes find it difficult to accept ourselves just as we are, just where we are supposed to be, in accordance to the will of the Lord.