beloved

All The Sweeter

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Today I learned something amazing. My wife and I are having a baby girl. What?!?! The KingCasa will no longer be solely driven by the testosterone fueled mischief of an all boy abode.

For weeks when someone would ask about Baby #4 I would just say, “I assume we are having a boy until science says otherwise.” Science says girl. And we’re thrilled. Not because we were wanting to add ribbons and bows to the mix. We’re thrilled because this adventurous life just got bigger and better. We would have been happy with any result. But yeah, there is a certain Grandma in the scenario who was really angling for a little princess—as well as two of my closest friends who both have daughters of their own.

Isn’t it just like God to completely surprise you? I’ve always liked good surprises. Suddenly, like we so often do, Jamie and I find ourselves in brand new beautifully-terrifying-territory. I don’t know ANYTHING about girls. I still find it a little bewildering that I found one who likes me enough to stick around.

But the faith life is nothing if not an ever stepping trek into the new and the unknown. One more jaunt up a hill whose pinnacle of hope masks a horizon of promise painted long before the first sunrise made its away across the globe. God knows. He knew it. He made it so.

He hung it there for us to find. He sat it there for us to walk upon in our wild journey into all of the good things he makes ready for the ones he loves. That’s you by the way. It’s me too. What a ride. The joy of this journey of faith is sometimes juxtaposed against a sadness for all the ones I’ve known who never dared to give it a shot. For in faith’s embrace life is made all the sweeter.

July 29 - To Be Loved

Matthew 3:13-17

...and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17 ESV)

Experiencing the love of another is a special thing. Something that nearly everyone longs for. However, the sad reality of our world is that not everyone goes through life feeling the love of another person. Human families are sometimes fragile, relationships are often messy, and the profound difficulty of tragic circumstances can make for some lonely situations.

The story of Jesus' baptism is one of my favorite moments in the Gospels. It is packed with insight into the nature of Christ. And the closing verse is one of the only moments in the Bible that records a direct interaction between God and Christ that other people were able to witness.

God declared that Jesus was His beloved Son. The truth of Jesus as the Son of God is an essential element of Christianity. But something that can sometimes be easily forgotten is that we are also sons and daughters of God.

Jesus' sacrifice made it so that we can be restored to our place in the family of God. We are indeed coheirs with Christ when we experience the power of transformational salvation. Jesus is the beloved Son, and in him each of us can know what it is like to be loved by God.