God’s View of Us

Welcome to some encouragement from your friends at Our Daily Bread.

Today's devotional, titled God's View of Us, was written by Kenneth Peterson. It was 1968, and America was mired in a war with Vietnam, racial violence was exploding in cities, and two public figures had been assassinated. A year before, fire had taken the lives of three astronauts on the launch pad, and the idea of going to the moon seemed like a pipe dream. Nonetheless, Apollo 8 managed to launch a few days before Christmas.

It became the first manned mission to orbit the moon. The flight crew, Borman, Anders, and Lovell, all men of faith, broadcast a Christmas Eve message from Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

At the time, it was the most watched TV event in the world, and millions shared the God's Eye view of earth in a now iconic photo. Frank Borman finished the reading, and God saw that it was good. Sometimes it's hard to look at ourselves, all the hardships we're mired in, and see anything that's good. But we might return to the story of creation and see God's view of us.

In the image of God, He created them. Let's pair that with another divine eye view from John 3.16. For God so loved the world. Today, remember that God created you, sees the good despite the sin, and loves the you He created.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from the first book in the Bible, Genesis chapter 1 verses 1 through 10. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day. And God said, Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water. So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it, and it was so. God called the vault sky, and there was evening, and there was morning, the second day. And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear, and it was so.

God called the dry ground land, and the gathered waters He called seas, and God saw that it was good. Now let's pray. Heavenly Father, You are our Creator God, and we thank You for fashioning us in Your image and for seeing the good in us even when we struggle to see it ourselves. Would You help us to take comfort in the knowledge that Your love is unconditional, and despite our flaws and our sins, You aren't through with us, but are continually working to reveal within us the fullness of who You created us to be. Thank You, Lord, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Wes Ward, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.