Gold Mine - Pt. 2

What if instead of saying, “Jesus came to die for our sins,” we said, “Jesus came so we could be ourselves.” This does not deny the importance of the removal of sin, but emphasizes its results – the freedom to be exactly who we are created to be.

Imagine a gold mine. We are the gold, while lies, sin and shame are the rocks and dirt that bury us. So much of it we did not ask for, yet still, a good amount we’ve heaped upon ourselves. One look from the outside and it’s no wonder we think we must become something we are not in order to meet the requirements for God’s love, but this is not how God sees us. God gave us Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God? Surely we are too polluted by our own grime and filth to come close to such a thing. Yet to believe this is to believe Christ died for nothing. Because of the cross, God looks at us and sees gold. The dirt and the rocks are not what He created; He created gold, nothing less.

Who we are is not something to be arrived at, but discovered. We need not wander around until we find the right door to knock on so God will notice us; we are already inside. Where we stand, in all the rocks and the dirt, is holy ground. It is where God has chosen to be intimate with us and not in any way but this. Our moment of truth is recognizing His voice breaking through the clouds declaring, ‘You are my beloved, in whom I am wonderfully pleased.’ God doesn’t just love you, it is His joy to love you, and this joy does not know what you speak of when you focus on the restriction of not measuring up.

You are exactly what God had in mind when He made you.

It is not that sin does not exist nor does God see it and pretend it is not there. The simple fact is the price has been paid. The journey to find ourselves is not the same as the one to save ourselves. If we've accepted Christ, we have already been saved. Instead, we use the powerfully kind truths given in His Word to shovel away the lies that have twisted their way into our identity. The journey is long as some rocks are so deeply lodged the process to remove them is slow and painful. But, at long last, we strike gold.

This is where I wish to reside. I want to make my home in the knowledge that I am delighted in. It is here that, with every breath and rising of the sun, I can confidently say, “God is my Father, and I am a child worth having.”

“Behold the One beholding you and smiling.” – Anthony de Mellow

*See Gold Mine- Pt.1 for the same article written with a focus on community rather than faith.