Gold Among the Gravel
The Ugly Duckling - have you ever read this classic book by Hans Christian Anderson? It is the story of a duck that is laying 5 eggs on a nest. One of the eggs looks odd, but the duck doesn’t give that much thought. She loved all of her eggs. When they hatch, four of the ducklings are yellow and fluffy and cute, while one is dull, gray, and rather ugly.
The mother duck treated all of the ducklings the same, but one day the ugly duckling saw his reflection in the water. He saw the ugly dull, gray feathers, he saw his strangely shaped beak, and asked his mom, “Why don’t I look like my brothers and sisters? Why am I so ugly?” The mother duck doesn’t know why, but he is her duckling and she loves him very much.
The mother’s love was not enough to help keep the ugly duckling from being teased by the other ducklings or having self-esteem issues. Not only did he look different, he felt different. He was sure that something was wrong with him. He ran away from home trying to find out who he was supposed to be. It was a long journey filled with many interactions.
One day, the ugly duckling noticed a beautiful female swan gliding gently through the water. It was love at first sight…until he remembered that he was just an ugly duckling. As he dropped his head to cry himself to sleep as he had done many times before, he noticed something different in his reflection. No longer was he a dull, gray color. No longer did he have a strange looking beak. Instead, he saw a beautiful, brilliant-white swan looking back at him.
It was at that moment that the ugly duckling first saw the beauty that was inside all along. All those feelings of not belonging, all those thoughts of being strange or different, they all made sense now. For he was not a duck, but a swan. Filled with a new sense of pride and determination, he went to speak with that beautiful female swan. They soon fell in love and lived happily ever after.
We are almost finished with Paul’s greetings to the church in Ephesus as we continue our series, Stronger. Today we take a look at Paul’s prayer for the church.
15 This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength. (Ephesians 1:15-19)
We Are Rich in Jesus
Paul wanted the church in Ephesus, as well as the church here in Eastport, to understand something very important: we are rich in Jesus.
We are chosen by God the Father to become His adopted sons and daughters. In Jesus, our sins have been forgiven, we are redeemed. We have been given an inheritance that is beyond any human measurement. We have been sealed by the power of God in the Holy Spirit, made secure until our final redemption by God when we will see Jesus face to face.
Clearly the magnitude, the scope of these riches has escaped us. We must not be able to comprehend the significance of these blessings or else we would be consistent in how we live our lives for Jesus. We would certainly let God be the boss of our lives if we truly understood all of this. That is why Paul prays that we will have a spirit of wisdom to understand our redemption, our inheritance, and the promise of strength through Jesus that we have been promised.
20 He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens— 21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put everything under His feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way. (Ephesians 1:20-23)
We Are Worth More Than We Understand
God demonstrated His power this way: We are children of God, adopted by Him as part of a plan that He made before the creation of the universe. Jesus redeemed us, forgave us, enlightened us, and has promised that we will be fabulously wealthy: both physically and spiritually in heaven. We have infinite worth.
We were once slaves until God looked at us and saw a prize worth everything in His Kingdom. God sees us as a jewel of great value. Many have trouble understanding how they could possibly be worth all of that in the eyes of God. They think of their past, of their faults, of their failures, of their weaknesses, their inabilities, and they wonder what God sees in them.
Perhaps this analogy will better help us understand what God sees in each of His children.
Imagine that you purchased property that was filled with unmined gold. The gold cries out, “How could you think I am worth anything. I’m all dirty. I’m mixed with worthless iron ore. I have filthy clay stuck all over me. I’m contaminated with mineral deposits throughout. I’m ugly and worthless.”
You then reply to the gold, “Oh, but I do love you. I see great value in who you can be. I know that you have many imperfections now, but I have plans for you. I won’t leave you the way you are now. I plan to purify you. I will get rid of all that junk surrounding you and in you. I know that all of that junk is not part of the real you. You are just temporarily mixed in with them, but I know how to change you from what you are now to what you can be.
“It won’t be easy. I will have to use an axe to pry you out of the ground and rock. I will then have to put you through great fire and amounts of stress but look at what I have accomplished with gold from other mines. See how beautiful it is? Look how it glistens and makes this jewelry so fine.
We Are Gold Among the Gravel
That is what you are meant to be. If I left you where you are, you would never become what you were meant to be, but I know how to bring you from the gravel and make you shine. I will make you beautiful and you will make me rich.
That is how God can love us, even when we are such hot messes now. God is not done with us. He has not given up on us. We are not yet what He plans for us to be. One day we will worship, fellowship, and serve Jesus unhindered by our sin. Until then, God wants us to turn from our sin and look to Him.
8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say, “We don’t have any sin,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
1 My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ the Righteous One. (1 John 1:8-2:1)
As followers of Jesus, we can understand that once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our redeemer and boss, our sin cannot take us out of God’s strong hands. God no longer views us through our own weaknesses, but through the righteousness of Jesus. It is through Jesus that we are seen as gold in God’s eyes. He knows we are still filled with a whole bunch of worthless junk, but He has plans to permanently free us from the weight of all that sin.
God knows better than we can possibly understand ourselves who we have become in Jesus. That should allow us to be content, be happy in the rich blessings that we have in Jesus. We are called to elevate God the Father through our praises and to tell others how wonderful He is. Don’t keep the good news to yourself. Enjoy it and spread it to all the world.
When we learn to see things from God’s viewpoint, we begin to understand that we are not ugly ducklings, we are not strange, but that we are beautiful creations of God. He is making us to be the purest, most precious vessels we could be. It is in His strength that we are able to become what He planned for us to be even before time began. Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.
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