(Excerpt from My Reflection in His Eyes: Seeing Yourself as God Sees You)
…. Beautiful women have a social attractiveness, an inward and outward component that makes them accepted, cool, wanted. There is also an outward quality, something beautiful, pretty, something that makes jaws drop and heads turn. And after all that, there is something special about them, something out of the ordinary, something to be cherished.
I think every woman wants to be cherished. I can remember some very silly junior high tricks I had up my sleeves to try to make certain boys think about me after I was gone. All this time and energy my friends and I spent devising plots to manufacture the desire of our heart–to be loved and cherished. The sad thing about all of our conniving to get attention is that we were already cherished more than we could imagine by our Creator.
This next passage of Scripture I included in two versions so you could enjoy the depth and richness of it:
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. NAS
How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly! I can’t even count how many times a day your thoughts turn toward me. TLB
Psalm 139:17-18
God thinks about you more times than there is sand in the sea. My mind can’t wrap around a number that large–and I am blown away to think that my God thinks about me that much! And He isn’t thinking thoughts like, “There she goes, messing up again,” or “Why did I waste that piece of My earth on her?” No, He is thinking nice thoughts about me, sweet, good, “precious” thoughts.
So in junior high while we were obsessing over some silly boy who really wasn’t very nice, great or anything else all that desirable, God was cherishing us. As a grown up gals, trying hard to make something of our life, God already thought we were something enough! The Lord delights in the way you laugh, celebrates your victories, enjoys your silly sense of humor, loves the way you love chocolate, relishes your silly little quirks and just plain treasures you, His princess! Bask in His love. Rest in His cherishing embrace.
While earthly relationships do not compare to the awesomeness of the relationship God desires to have with us, sometimes He uses them to reflect a piece of His love for us. My hubby is frequently a reflection of God’s love to me. One time, (long before we were married and while we were still in that love-dovey-ooey-gooey state of our courtship) after he had dropped me off and returned to his home, he was getting out of his truck and found one of my stray hairs on the seat. Now, old hair that has fallen out of someone’s head is gross by just about everyone’s standards. But my sweetie was in love with me, so in love that detached hair was a precious piece of me. His landlord caught him standing outside his truck holding this old hair of mine in his hands as if it were a little treasure. Kinda yucky, yep. But none the less, it is a perfect illustration of the kind of love God has for us.
“But the very hairs of your (insert your name) head are all numbered. So do not fear; you (your name) are more valuable than many sparrows.” Matthew 10:30-31
God has numbered your hairs! And you thought you cared about your hair! God actually notices when you loose a hair–recount time! That is a crazy amount of counting going on! And a whole lot of intense love for you and me. Are you soaking in this glimpse of how much God loves you?
Not only has He counted the hairs on your head and thinks about you more times than there is sand on the sea, but even in those moments when you thought no one noticed, He was there, taking note.
You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book? Psalm 56:8
Every lonely place you have walked, God took an account, He noticed. Every tear you cried alone in your bedroom, He caught it and placed it in a bottle. I think I’ve got a lot of bottles up in heaven! But bigger than the river any of us has cried is God’s love. And His love is big enough to cry into when life hurts and then wipe away the pain and the tears.
Devotional excerpt from the Bible Study My Reflection in His Eyes: Seeing Yourself as God Sees You. For more encouraging words on this topic, you can order the study here.
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