Being "somebody"

As we negotiate the labyrinth of urban life with is competitive spirit and dehumanising situations it can feel as though no one values us.  In fact we can find it hard to experience ourselves as valuable.  We long to be treasured.  We need someone to cherish us.

I need someone else to "believe" in me; believing in myself is not enough.

Our letter tells us next that God loves us and because he loves us his intentional plan is that we should be in relationship with him.  In fact we are told that God makes it possible for us to be adopted as his children; he wants us to be that close to him.  There is nothing more cherished than a child.  One can’t be more significant than being God’s child!

In case we think that God might not be the loving kind of parent, the writer tells us that it is “in accordance with his pleasure and will”.  Having us as his children makes God happy.  Making us his children demonstrates “glorious grace” – this plan arises from a magnificent kindness and mercy, not from some kind of selfish desire on God’s part.  More than that, God gives us this grace of being his child “freely”.  The words pile up on each other, expressing the largess of God as he pours his love out to us in adopting us.

These sentences suggest that somehow this adoption is tied up with Jesus.  We don’t know how yet, but adoption is “through Jesus Christ”.  Again, “grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” … and it will become apparent that this means Jesus. 

The Bible: Ephesians 1:5&6

http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/online-bible/?translation=niv&book=ephesians&chapter=1