The Journey to Greatness

Does it ever blow your mind that each of us were perfectly designed down to every tiny cell in our bodies? Or that we were all made so uniquely different, each of being formed from dust with a specific purpose?

I guess for me, it took a few years (almost 25) to learn to even begin to notice just how incredibly beautiful life is, no matter who or where you are. The Creator of the universe apparently thought the world needed a Maddie, and His eyes saw my unformed body before I was woven together in the depths of the earth. He loved me before I existed; His amazing thoughts concerning me have outnumbered all of the grains of sand.

God made humans for good. He carefully designed and formed each of us, and calls each of us by name. He created us out of love; to each of us, He gave life from His very own lungs. Your life + existence has more value than you know.

This life is such a beautiful and humbling journey. And the one true God of all of the universe formed each of us, sharing all His beautiful things, giving us the authority to rule the earth + add to its beauty. He even gave us the choice to accept or deny Him each day, and He honors those choices in each of our lives. But He didn’t even stop there…

He saw the parasite [of sin] which infected His good world…and He didn’t give up on us. We abandoned Him, we broke His heart time and time again. We forgot who we were. And still, His eyes beamed with grace. Love. Goodness. Forgiveness. And so He did something completely counterintuitive, absolutely genius, even CRAZY.

God bore Himself into a Man, He binded Himself to humanity forever- and named His Son Jesus (meaning: “God with us” and “Yahweh saves”). He spent His life on earth proclaiming the kingdom of God, teaching, and healing all who were sick. And then, HE SAVED THE ENTIRE WORLD BY DYING, in order to remove the infection of sin + its consequences (death). Jesus died in our place, paying our debt out of complete self-giving love and grace. God could have just snapped His finger and fixed it all. He didn’t have to give us a choice. He didn’t have to come down to earth, but HE WANTED TO. He didn’t have take the time to teach us, heal us, or explain who He is + why He loves us so much, but HE WANTED TO. He saw our wickedness and the great pain we were suffering due to the parasite of our sin…and He knew we couldn’t beat it without Him.

So He just decided to blow everyone’s mind for all of eternity by DYING FOR HIS ENEMY. Everyone thought Jesus would redeem God’s people through revenge (like all other prophets in the past–saving God’s people at the expense of others). But nope. Fighting death with death apparently was not the answer. God got creative y’all!! He saved us by DYING FOR US. On that day, Jesus became the sacrificial Lamb for all, defeating both the physical consequences of sin + death AND the [unseen] evil spiritual kingdoms behind it all. And when Jesus rose from the grave, God extended His free gift of grace and eternal life through His Son to all humans who accept and follow Him. And with His very last breath, Jesus poured out His personal Spirit upon us. He wrote His love for us on the very tablet of each of our hearts so that we may know the truth:

Jesus is the one true human we were all made to be, but inevitably failed to be [due to sin]. And He came down to earth to fulfill the Law + promises of our Creator God, and to save all of humanity in the craziest, most beautiful way. He gave us His personal presence, so that we may follow Him each day, and tell others of His good news.

“You planned this for evil, but God planned it for good, to save many lives.”

Genesis 50:20 

“I will extol and praise You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my enemies rejoice over me.

O Lord my God, I cried to You for help, and You have healed me.

O Lord, You have brought my life up from Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead); You have kept me alive, so that I would not go down to the pit (grave).

Sing to the Lord, O you His godly ones, And give thanks at the mention of His holy name.

For His anger is but for a moment, Or in His favor is life. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may endure for a night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.

As for me, in my prosperity I said, “I shall never be moved.”

By Your favor and grace, O Lord, you have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was horrified.

I called to You, O Lord, And to the Lord I made supplication (specific request).

What profit is there in my blood (death), if I go down to the pit (grave)? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness [to man]?

Hear, O Lord, be gracious and show favor to me; O Lord, be my helper.

You have turned my mourning into dancing for me; You have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.”

Psalm 30