At lunch the other day, I went and sat by a river that runs through a park here in town. I took my food, my ipod, and my Bible and walked down by the river and sat. As I ate, I went back & forth between just looking around and observing nature, and reading bits and pieces of my Bible. The whole time, my ipod was going. Still somehow, God managed to find His way in.
During that time, a song played. The lyrics: You are Creator, and I am what You've made.
I've listened to this song hundreds of times. I like it. It's a great song. And I've always enjoyed the sentiment behind the song. But somehow, sitting in the middle of so many beautiful things God created, I saw the truth behind the lyrics in a way I've never seen it before.
I had been spending much of my lunch time admiring the beauty of all He has made; wondering at the intricacy and detail of nature; worshiping Him for the creativity and variety that He has constructed. I truly was in awe of His creation. For a while, I considered how beautiful those parts of nature truly are that go relatively untouched by man. It seems that when we keep our hands out of things and allow nature to carry on about its ways, perfection is attained. The way the vines wrap around the trees and the branches hang down to create a covering for the animals that live on the ground below. The way the flowers reach for the sun, and open and close with its rise and fall. The way the butterflies chase each other from one flower to another and the ants find their way with seemingly flawless navigation. And the river winds and flows without ceasing. How could I possibly sit in such surroundings and not be moved?
But the whole time I was considering His work, I was looking outwardly. I was admiring the beauty of trees, flowers, birds, and bugs (even the little ants who were trying to walk off with my lunch). But it had not for a moment crossed my mind to look inwardly - to consider myself a part of His creation.
It was one of those moments that seem to take me completely off guard. I was unspeakably humbled by the truth of what I was able to understand in that moment. To Him, I am as beautiful as the flowers, as majestic as the giant oak trees. When He looks on me, He sees a work of art, carefully, and intricately crafted, and perfectly planted. He finds joy in planting into my life and watching me grow. And to Him, I am more precious than even the trees, the flowers, and the birds that He so beautifully formed and placed.
How can that be?
It is a strange thing. To think that God could love me - with my many flaws and shortcomings, my pride, my indifference to others, my selfishness, my impatience, my temper, my critical attitudes. That He could love a person like me at all is, in itself, enough to try to comprehend, but to realize that He loves me MORE - more than all the rest of His breathtaking creation... that, I believe, can only truly be understood through a moment of divine revelation. Anything else falls short of being able to fully comprehend such a thing.
To think that He has placed His highest esteem on man over everything else He has made! It goes against human nature to place the highest value on the thing most likely to hurt or disappoint us, don't you think? Maybe that's why it's so difficult for us to understand and really believe His love for us. It just doesn't make sense to us, because our tendency is one of self-preservation and protection. As I sat by the river, looking at the trees and thinking about this, I struggled with this for a moment. I mean, the trees are beautiful; they are solid and faithful in standing tall and remaining, in serving as a shelter; the trees have spent their entire existence in such a way as to never once hurt or offend their Creator. In comparison to myself, surely the trees are more deserving of adoration.
But the trees serve faithfully in the absence of free will. They stand still because they cannot walk. They do not fail because they are incapable of choosing between success and failure. It is the element of free will that makes us what we are - that distinguishes us from the rest of His creation. It is our free will that allows us the opportunity to love Him with our whole hearts and to serve Him because we love Him so much. As much as I can tell, the risk of being hurt or disappointed is not nearly as great as the joy and happiness He finds in being loved, adored, and worshiped by a willing heart.
And so whether or not it makes sense to me, in that moment, I was faced with a deeper understanding of how much God loves and values me as an individual. I do not deserve His adoration. I have done nothing to earn His affection. But He has created me (and not only me, but each of us) to be the recipient of His love, and to love Him in return, with a willing heart. And He looks on each one of us with a love that is beyond our comprehension, and He places a value on every individual that we may never fully know. And while I can never do enough to deserve His love, I am grateful, and will receive it with a willing heart. He is so good!
And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. (Ephesians 3:18)