I was struck the other day that God sees people altogether differently from how I do. While there are people I care deeply for, want to spend time with, who I remember to pray for – there are also plenty of people in my life who I just don’t love as well as I could. Whose company I perhaps find more difficult, sometimes simply because I haven’t made time to get to know them better. And all that is to say nothing of the billions of people I have never even met, and don’t spare a thought for.

I’m not saying that to get down on myself – although I would like to grow more like Jesus in this area – but to highlight how incredible God’s love for people is. Even if I had his time and resources, I’d still probably selfishly squander them, but he makes time for everyone – and he does so gladly. If you have come to think of yourself as unlovely, unlovable, unworthy, as a loser or a loner, you need to know what God thinks of you. As he said to his people in Israel, ‘I have engraved you on the palms of my hands’ (Isaiah 49:16). Just as he comforted his disciples, you are valuable to God (Matt 10:29-31) – he knows the number of hairs on your head, his eye is on your life.

In the first few verses of Ephesians, Paul explains that God had you in mind even before the foundation of the world, and the offer of adoption as a son or daughter of God – the eternal Father whose love is deeper and wider than we can begin to grasp – is open to everyone. It is open to you, if you will open your eyes to the outrageous love that God has for you. He gave his precious son so that you could be forgiven, so that a way could be made for you to return to the side of the one who made you, who gives life meaning and who promises a hope beyond even the grave. Put your faith in Jesus and come to rest in the love that will never fade or grow bored.

Jesus didn’t just pick the most popular people. He made a beeline for the sick, the downtrodden and the lonely. Whatever you have come to think of yourself, whatever others have told you about yourself, let this be the thought that rises above them all: God is the one whose opinion matters supremely, and he thinks you are worth his time.

This is available as a print