Live Happily Inked

Almost everyone has either heard of or has seen Michelangelo’s famous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. God and Adam so close to each other. Adam is so close to touching the hand of God. The hand of the God that created the trees, the animals, the world, the universe, and us. But take a closer look. You can see God being held by His angles. They are keeping Him upright as he clings to them. You can see every muscle of His body straining to reach His beautiful creation, which He so deeply loves. You can see the intensity in His face as He reaches towards Adam. Now look at Adam. Half-heartedly reaching to God. Lounging back, without much thought or cares as he reaches towards the one that created him.

If I were Adam I would have been on my tiptoes reaching and stretching as far as possible just to be as close to Him as possible.

But that is the beauty of this painting. This painting slaps us in the face with the reality of our relationship with our God. He has and always will be stretching out to us just to meet our meager reach. This shows us how much God wants to be apart of our lives.

He gave us the option to love and follow His words. He did not have to do that. He did not have to give us the option of letting us live our own lives. He could have just made us His slaves. But He didn’t. Our God loves love. He didn’t have to create us with feelings, but He did. He knows the value of true love and adoration. He wants us to love Him just as much as we want someone to love us. We belong to a great King. We are His beloveds. We are His.

“When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine.” Ezekiel 16:8

This verse shows just how much our God cares for us. He saw us in our most fragile state and covered us. He made a vow to us and made a commitment to us. We became His. This passage also sheds light on where God sees us. He sees us as something He cares for.  Something He wants to protect. Something He wants to be with for eternity. It also shows us how we see God. We see God as an option. We see God as our ticket to living forever, and we see Him as an accessory to our life. We do not see God as a necessity to living. We do not see that He is our reason for living. This world is self-consumed. People mostly care about tending to their wants rather than God’s. We put our wants before the almighty King’s.

If Kings that have lived on this world heard that you were doing what you wanted to do instead of what they wanted you to do, you would be punished. You could not redeem yourself if you disobeyed the King’s order because you would likely have been killed. However, our King always gave us second chances, and then ultimately gave us His son as an ultimate sacrifice. You know why? Because, God loves us.

So whenever you are feeling like God does not care about you or your circumstances, remember this verse and Michelangelo’s painting. God will always care for us. He will always reach for us. We are His.