Overrated? No, never.

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God abounds in love and grace, is the epitome of beauty, offers true life, forgives all wrongs, frees all slaves, etc. I also know that nothing could be more wonderful than this. And, yet, sometimes I almost feel like it's all overrated... like somehow culture has led me to believe that everything God is and everything He does is almost ordinary, like it's just something we see every day... "Yeah, yeah. God forgives me and loves me and stuff. I've heard that before. That's just who God is - nothing really special or anything." I begin to wonder if we simply glaze over God's awesome majesty because we've heard about it so many times before and because it has become something of a cliche to us. It is almost as if it has all been repeated so many times that it no longer means anything at all. I fear that we have minimized the glory of His nature.

How can we be so naive? How can we allow such low thinking of our Creator in the midst of recognizing Him as our Creator? No matter how many times it is said and no matter how many times you have heard it, it is all still true. God is greater than anything... ANYTHING we can EVER imagine! His goodness is astounding and His beauty outshines the sun; His love is never-ending; His grace stretches beyond our wildest dreams; His glory is ineffable; He created all things for His glory, yet needs nothing for He is self-sufficient! He needs nothing and no one, yet He has created mankind that we might benefit from His goodness. And when we turned away and became like scum, too lowly to enter His throne room, He recognized us anyway and accepted us in by sending His Son to become our own dirt in order to make us clean.

Despite all my wickedness and all my lack of passion for Him, God calls me to Himself. He invites me into His splendor when I simply choose to acknowledge Him as God. He beckons me into His glory and He, yes God, is enraptured by me - His own creation who longs for Him even though she falls desperately short.

God is NOT overrated. He is so much more loving, beautiful, powerful, big, glorious... than we can ever imagine; even our greatest efforts of imagining His greatness fall terribly short of His indescribable majesty. And yet, this is the God I serve, or at least strive to. I know that I will fail, that I will frequently fall short, that I will make mistakes over and over again. But I also know that He is waiting, still, with open arms. My Creator sits in that glorious throne room captivated by me regardless of my flaws and awaiting my entrance, where He will recognize me as His legitimate daughter, where He will see me as His princess, clean and pure by the work of His Son.

It's all so backwards; shouldn't we be captivated by Him?

Though I sin and am ever falling short of His perfection, though my righteous works are like dirty rags and though I am terribly unworthy to dare think about being in His presence, God in His overwhelming love sees only the work of His Holy Son in me. He casts aside my sin, gives me grace, and shows me love. This may be nothing new, and it might even sound cliche. But I believe this is true... and I still think it is exciting. We cannot underestimate what God has done or who He is and we should never allow Him to become overrated in our eyes. Nay, when we turn our eyes upon Him, all other things should always grow dim in the light of His glorious face.

To him who sits on the throne
and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!
Revelation 5:13b