As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

On a visit home a few years ago, my mother-in-law dug some of my husband's old keepsakes out of their basement. Sean's eyes lit up as he held out to me his childhood blanket, dubbed "Mickey" for the faded cartoon figures that once graced its quilted front, but I couldn't muster up a scrap of sentimentality for the ratty old thing. Nostalgia had fostered Sean's hope that our baby would treasure that blanket as dearly as he had, but all I saw was a scratchy, faded chunk of fabric.

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Now, if it had been my childhood blankie being held up, of course I would've felt differently! Because, had I seen my own blankie, I wouldn't have noticed the frayed edges, I would have only remembered the feel of its softness against my cheek as a little girl. I wouldn't have worried about the musty odor it inherited from my parents' basement; I would have only remembered the familiar, comforting smell that had always meant home. I wouldn't have cared about its faded color or bedraggled appearance one bit.

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Because, when we love things, their current state matters little when weighed against the sum of how they made us feel. Be it a tattered blankie, or our stinky old dog, a sick loved one waning toward death, or even a newborn baby covered in God-knows-what, we draw all of them close just the same because of what they mean to us.

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And this kind of love is what comes to mind when I read this beautiful passage from Ephesians in The Message translation. It says, " It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us!"

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Despite our current state - stagnant, polluted, disobedient - God embraced us. Where the world looked at us and saw filthy rags, God just saw you, his kid.

It reminds me of the parable Jesus tells of the prodigal son coming home (Luke 15:11). The father, he doesn't care a bit that his son was living with pigs, starved, traveling home for days - he was probably really disgusting! No, the father ran to him and kissed him! When you love something, it just doesn't matter - You draw it close! And our Father did the same for us. Rich in mercy, he drew us close.

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I heard a woman say once that God wouldn't fill a dirty vessel, implying that we needed to get our act together before we could come to God. But Scripture actually teaches the opposite. Verse 4 begins with the blessed line, but God. He is the change agent here, not us. When we were dead in our transgressions, our Father, full of mercy and compassion, ran and embraced us even then (Romans 5:8).

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When it comes to your relationship with God, who have you been viewing as the change agent here? Have you been trying to hold yourself up to God, hoping he'll find your frayed edges and ratty appearance favorable? Dear friend, that's just missing the point. He isn't concerned with your condition - he's well aware and has a plan to restore you completely. But first, he's just running to embrace you. He is the father: he does the loving, the saving, and the restoring - all on his own, by his ever-abundant mercy and grace. Will you let yourself live loved, caught up in his embrace today?

Thank you, God, for drawing me to yourself and making me alive in Christ! God, I'm so thankful I didn't have to get back to right standing with you on my own; I know I never could have done it. Thank you for your mercy in saving me from myself. Help me to remember that you are the Father, and that YOU hold on to ME, not the other way around. In Jesus' name, Amen!