Can You Hear It?
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." (Luke 3:21-22)
After Jesus was baptized by John the baptizer, a heavenly voice claimed Jesus as a pleasing son, and called him "beloved". Most days we can't imagine God choosing to claim us, being pleased with us, or calling us beloved. When we look at ourselves honestly, we see our sinful acts, our selfish intentions, and we know our perverse thoughts. Even on our best days we fail miserably at putting God and others before ourselves. We remember traumas we've experienced - harm we've caused, and harm done to us. We find it difficult to love ourselves, and impossible to imagine a perfect God loving us.
But the good news of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection is that God now sees us through Christ-colored glasses. In each of us, God sees a precious child whom God longs to shower with grace, mercy, love and acceptance. May we choose to let go of all that has been - all we have been - and be immersed in the goodness of God.
We are God's beloved!
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
