Last week in Nashville heading into the Bridgestone arena for the CMA’s, two young twenty-year-old girls offered to take our picture in exchange for taking theirs. They took our picture, we thanked them and we took theirs. They immediately looked at their picture and exclaimed, “Oh my gosh, we’re so cute!”
Now I would love to say that was our first reaction to seeing our picture… but the truth is with four “fifty-something”-year-old-women taking group photos was difficult because there was always one of us who didn’t like something about themselves in the photo and we ended up taking multiple photos to get one that would “pass” for posting. Not once was our initial reaction, “oh my gosh, we’re so cute.”
Now the reality was the twenty-somethings were “so cute.” But let’s think for a minute … what was the reality for the fifty-somethings?
It reminded me way back in Genesis … when Adam and Eve, after falling into sin in the Garden, told God that they were naked. And God asked … “who told you that?” God had NOT told them they were naked, but someone had and they believed it.
Who’s voice are you listening to? … the critical voice inside your head? … the voice of others? Or the voice of God who created you and the Only One who has the right to tell you who you are.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s masterpiece.” The Greek word for masterpiece is Poiema. Looks like poem, doesn’t it? You are God’s poem. Is that your initial reaction when you see a photo of yourself? Or look in the mirror? Yeah, me neither. But that IS reality; that is truth. Who’s voice will you choose to listen to?
God says: You are Beloved (Jeremiah 31:3), Wanted (2 Peter 3:9), Wonderfully Made (Psalm 139:14), Chosen (2 Thessalonians 2:13), Handpicked (Jeremiah 1:5), Unique (Psalm 139:13-14), Treasured (Deuteronomy 31:8), the apple of His eye (Psalm 17:8).
Next time someone takes your photo why not let your immediate reaction be to exclaim God’s truth about who you are before that critical voice inside your head can speak.
I think it might just make God grin if we all exclaimed, “Oh my gosh, we are so cute!”
