Ugly Guys
By Robin Jones
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Romans 5:6-8 MSG
Some people like ugly.
My nephew, Connor, liked the yucky, scary action figures. For me, it was my Christmas shopping oasis.
Step 1. Go to Toys a Rama
Step 2. Find and pay for the most grotesque looking doll (Whoops, I meant “action figure”).
Easy, peasy.
It’s been a while, and the boy is now a young man with different interests. However, he is still the lover of the ugly. He loves our cat Cleo. She will not win any beauty pageants.
Cleo is black, orange and some other odd colors. One might describe this color pattern as mange. Although she doesn’t have a hair disorder, it certainly looks like it. Couple her hair problems with her snaggletooth and advanced age and you have the complete picture.
(The people at Fancy Feast are looking to employ this gal for their next commercial.)
But . . . big-hearted Connor sees past all of that. He loves her anyway.
He loves ugly . . . anyway.
God planted His compassion for His creation in Connor’s heart. He has a big love for those who are misfits, alone or under loved.
Like Cleo or the Action Figures, all of us are pretty ugly in one way or the other – mentally, emotionally, spiritually, or physically.
Despite our unattractive outsides or our destitute insides . . . God loves us anyway.
Our Creator loves us as a Father loves His child, unconditionally, boundlessly. However, our Father is also a Holy God who hates sin (i.e., our ugly behavior).
Therein lies the conflict. This is where people stumble finding God.
How can a loving Father and a Holy God be the same?
Parent, what would you do to find a lost child?
Whatever it costs!
God’s great love for us is proven in what it cost Him to rescue us. David Nasser said,
God bankrupted the heavenly storehouses to pay the ransom for our sin.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NIV
While we were ugly, broke-down, misfits, far from God, Jesus bridged the gap. Considering that, shouldn’t we too look to love anyway?
Jesus says, If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. Luke 6:32-33 NIV
Pray for God to open your eyes to someone you find detestable. Pray for God to show you how He sees them.
Ask them to coffee. Get to know their story.
Lord, remind me always of how far You reached to rescue me. In this, You show me Your grace and mercy. Show me how to love the unlovable and reach the unreachable. Through Your once and for all sacrifice on the cross, we are saved! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
© 2013 by Robin Jones. All rights reserved.
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Originally published Wednesday, 30 November 2016.
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