imperfect. CHOSEN.

It was an ordinary day, just chillin' at the "Free Zoo" (aka Petco), looking at all the animals in their cages. I wasn't really looking to take anything home. Believe me. 

 

"Look at this one, Mama..." my daughter called over to me. "I think she only has one eye!" 

She was a tiny little Tuxedo Cat, rubbing up against the cold, confining bars of the crate. She looked up at me with longing eyes (well, EYE, I should say--it was just the one) and purred out what I'm sure was a plea for me to take her home with us. 

 

At least that's how I choose to remember it. 

As I filled out the paperwork to make her ours, the woman arranging the pet adoptions told me, "A lot of people have held her and thought about taking her, but nobody has been willing to actually choose her and take her home because she's missing an eye. Too many families have worried it might require surgeries or additional cost down the road."

Maybe that should've deterred me. It didn't. We brought that little kitten home, and she's become an honorary Nelson. She's actually sitting on my lap right now as I type this. 

I think of how imperfect I am, yet I'm chosen. Flawed deeply, but adopted. My Heavenly Father wanted me and took me in--and did so fully knowing that there WOULD be a cost. A great one. It would cost Him His Son to take me in. How was He not deterred by my failures? And how could He so treasure and regard me that He would call me His, considering the enormity of the cost?

 

But He did. 

 

I'm imperfect. So very imperfect. 

And yet perfectly loved. 

 

And you...You are His treasure. The one He calls beloved. 

You are seen. 

You are wanted. 

 

You are prized. 

 

Forget the ones that may have passed you by. Decided against you.  Considered your flaws too great a liability.  Concluded that maybe you weren't worth the gamble. 

 

He says you are beloved. 

So Be Loved.