You are welcome for that eye catching title!!
It took me awhile to sit down and write this post, but when I finally did, my fingers just went flying.
I have a whole bunch of ideas for new posts. Things I want to tell you that I have learned. Thoughts that have been swirling around in my head as I’ve been following Jesus. I want to tell you about things I’m not quite as sure of that I used to be confident of and other things that I now believe with everything in me.
But the words that keep coming to my head are these:
This is what I need you to know.
As I write to you in the coming days, weeks, months, and years, this is what I need you to know. As I show you what I am learning, I need you to know this about me. And I need you to know this about you. When you know this about yourself, you will also know this about other people. You know this about your friends, your family, strangers on the street. When you know this about yourself, you also know this about the person that you look at and judge. You know this about the person that hates you the most. And when you know this about yourself and you know this about them, it will change you.
This is what I want you to believe with all of your heart.
That you are loved more than you can imagine.
That you, child of God, are the apple of his eye (Zech 2:8) The Bible actually says that!! According to Wikipedia, in the English language today, the phrase “apple of my eye” refers to something or someone that one cherishes above all others. Doesn’t that just make your heart beat a million beats a minute?? The apple of his eye!!
In my family there is a long running joke about being the favorite. According to me, I am each of my grandparent’s favorite grandchild. I even have a saved voice mail that goes approximately 5 years back from one of my grandmas telling me that I am her favorite. But the funny thing about this, is that my sister also says she’s the favorite. And my cousins say that they are. (And they probably have voicemails from Grandma saying the same thing!!) I call my mom and say, “Hi, Mom, it’s your favorite daughter!” when she picks up the phone. When my uncle calls, he says, “Hello, my favorite niece!” And I grin and grin! Because, well, I am the favorite!!
But in all honesty, in my family, we are all so well loved that we all really do feel like the favorites. We are well aware that there is a special place for each one of us in the place that matters most in the heart of the ones who loves us so well.
And that family love, the love that is incomparable to other loves, is nothing when set alongside the love of God. The one who created everything in the world with his words, but when it came to creating humans, the Bible says that God the Father looked at the Holy Spirit and his Son and said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.” and so God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.” (Genesis 1: 26-27).
He created us. He formed us and fashioned us in his very own image. Psalm 139 tells us that he created our inward parts; knit us together in our mother’s womb (Verse 13). In his image. We are what is referred to in Latin as the “Imago dei”, the image of God. Doesn’t that sound fancy?? It feels fancy to me!!
So when God looks at you, he sees his child, made in his image. And his love is so pure and so perfect that he knows exactly how to love you. He knows because he KNOWS you. He created you. He adores you. You are the apple of his eye. You are his favorite.
And just like in any family that jokes about who the favorite kid is, it is the same for us with God. As the oldest grandchild on both sides of my family, I know that I am not the only one who feels that love and pride of being the fave. Nope, because I can look at my cousins and I can see their love for my grandmas and grandpas and I can see their eyes shine with that same feeling of belonging. I can hear it when my grandparents tell me about my cousins when I may have not been able to catch up with them as often as I would like. With my sister, I can see how my parents love both of us individually, but completely. With my kids, the love that I feel for them is not different, but it is shown differently to each of them in different seasons. And they, too, now joke about which is my favorite.
I didn’t always know that I was God’s favorite, but I am confident in this now. I know with all of my heart, that the God of the universe who sent the entire world into motion with just his words, looks at me with his eyes shining with pride. I am the apple of his eye. The one he cherishes. Even when I’m not doing my best at loving him and loving others, I can still turn back to him and be encouraged to try it again.
The funny thing is that there have been plenty of times that I surely have not felt like I was the apple of God’s eye. I was not basking in the favoritism. I felt let down and I felt hurt. I’m sure you have felt these same things. But I realized that I was putting my own feelings and limitations on God. His gaze on me didn’t change. My circumstances might have changed, but He didn’t. He just needed me to come back to what I already know about him and that is this. God is good and God is great, and he loves me more than anything. I might live in a broken world where I end up disappointed and hurt more than I would like, but God didn’t change because something inside of me did. I just have to look to him again and remember it all over again. And make the choice once again to believe.
And because I believe this about myself, and I believe that our God has such amazing, huge, unfathomable love, I believe this about you. I believe with everything in me that the love that he has for me is no different than the love that he has for you. And when I believe that about you, my hope is that you believe that about yourself. I hope that you can feel his love. That you would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’re his favorite kid.
And I’ll just sit over here knowing that I am.
