Beginnings

“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’”

– Matthew 3:16-17

Scripture Reading: Matthew 3:13-17

Isn’t it amazing that we find such a striking statement of love and affirmation at the very beginning of Jesus’s public ministry. Here, Jesus is claimed as a beloved Son, prior to an tangible accomplishments for God’s kingdom,

As best we can tell, Jesus has lived an ordinary childhood and early adulthood as a carpenter’s son. All of the discipling, teaching, preaching, healing, and performing of miracles are still on the horizon. All of the long dusty miles of walking and the many nights sleeping outside en route to the next town are yet to come. I find it astonishing to hear God calling Jesus beloved without any of the doing and performing that I typically associate with God’s favor.

And it gives me hope that our journeys also start from a place of Belovedness. God’s love for us has never been tied to anything we do. Because Jesus has done all of the saving and redeeming on our behalf, we can never do anything to make Him love us any more or any less. We will always be desperately loved.

Hear God’s words to you today, “You are my child, whom I love, with you I am well pleased.”

Prayer: Lord, we struggle to accept Your perfect love for us because we confuse it with our experience of striving to earn human approval. Thank You for loving us beyond what we can understand and for claiming us as Your own. Help us to accept our core identity as Beloved. Amen.