Recently, I've realized that the majority of my generation (myself included) is consumed with the horrifying thought of being rejected. We don't like to be stood up on a date or laughed at by a group of friends. We crave praise, attention, and acceptance. That last word, quite possibly, hinges our entire existence (at least in this century). This behavior is incredibly destructive, though. The date isn't that important and neither is the "group of friends," but what is important is what Jesus thinks of you. And this is what he thinks--you're His child, you're saved, and you're beautiful. His love for you surpasses all other "love" on this Earth. earthly love greatly pales in comparison to Heavenly love. The savior will forever accept you. He's the only one that saves, even when we will never deserve it. We see this highlighted in 1 Timothy:
"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost." - 1 Timothy 1:15
Jesus knew we were sinners, but he still saved. He knew our ugly mistakes, all of our imperfections, and our shortcomings. He saved, still, and that is really the most beautiful form of acceptance ever. We are guilty of sin, yet we're healed. Humans can't do that for us, so why does flesh continue to crave acceptance from flesh? I think most people feel like the Samaritan woman that Jesus asked for a drink. She was an outcast, she probably didn't have many friends at all because of her indiscretions, and she definitely wasn't fully accepted by any human. Jesus did accept and love her, though. It's shown in John:
"Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.' The woman said to him, 'Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.' Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'" - John 4:10-14
The Samaritan woman thought she needed water from the earthly well, but what she really needed was water from the Heavenly well that is Jesus. We so often look to earthly things to sustain us, and we forget that Jesus did, does, and will sustain us. After God creates the Earth in Genesis, this pure acceptance is also seen:
"And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day." -Genesis 1:31
Before God's day of rest, He looked upon all He had made (which includes us) and accepted it. This shows two things 1) He created us and 2) He loves us and is pleased with our existence. God created the stars, the ocean, and all of nature (which is a ridiculous amount of beauty), and He considers us just as beautiful as every constellation, every mountain, and every multicolor sunset. We don't need a human check mark of approval because our whole existence already has a God-sized check mark of approval.
