Beautiful, crazy, amazing love

Ezekiel 16:4-14


On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. 5 No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.


6 " 'Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, "Live!" 7 I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare.


8 " 'Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.


9 " 'I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. 10 I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. 11 I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, 12 and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. 14 And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD.


Though these verses are about God's love and covenant with Israel, and though the verses after these are about their unfaithfulness to Him, these verses scream to my heart a beautiful picture of God's beautiful, crazy, amazing love for me!


The world casts us aside, "despised" on our day of birth, but God sees us and tells us to "Live!" and we "become the most beautiful of jewels." He takes the brokeness and hopelessness that the world causes and/or sees and He creates it into something beautiful beyond our imagination.


And "" 'Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.


9 " 'I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. 10 I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. 11 I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, 12 and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. 14 And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD.


I can't help but almost cry after reading those verses. God LOVES US!!!!!!!! I don't think that we can ever not say that enough...ever...


God took my ugly sinful heart, He washed it, and is now adorning it, creating it into the "most beautiful of jewels"


And my song of joy is: Refine me, refine me. O Lord, bathe, wash my sinful heart. Create it into the most beautiful of jewels. Refine me, refine me.


May the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and give you His peace. And may you always love Jesus first, above ALL else.
~Robin Jones Gunn