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Rag Dolls

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Isaiah 64:6

Growing up, Ruthie had an ongoing love affair with a tattered rag doll she named Suzy. Suzy had survived a flood, lost an arm, and her head drooped to one side. But Ruthie didn’t care; she loved Suzy enough to see beyond her condition. And that’s a picture of God’s unconditional love for you. The world’s full of Suzy’s: divorced, abused, abandoned, addicted, wounded, broken rag dolls that sin has left its mark on. Maybe you were one! Maybe you still are! Isaiah asks, "How can people like us be saved, our righteous deeds are but filthy rags..." The answer is - God specializes in reconstructive surgery! That’s why there’s a cross! There, Jesus went to the ultimate length to prove His love for us. And that love creates value by attaching itself to ragged humanity, transforming each of us into priceless treasure! Listen: "We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for. But God put His love on the line for us while we were of no use whatever to Him" (Romans 5:7-8). God didn’t create you because He was bored and needed a project, He did it out of love. C S Lewis said, "God, who needs nothing, loved into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them." Amazing! We were so damaged by sin that, humanly speaking, the smart thing would have been to discard us and start again. But for reasons we’ll never comprehend, God’s love attached itself to us at Calvary and refused to let go - making us immeasurably valuable in His eyes. Aren’t you glad?

Prayer
Thank you Heavenly Father for your ongoing reconstruction surgery in my life! Can’t wait to see what I will end up looking like! In Jesus’ Name, Amen