“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:14-17 NIV).

Let’s take a vote: do children tend toward the messy or the beautiful? For those who said “messy,” remember that children’s tendency to “mess” is just part of their fast-paced nature. They get out one toy, play with it for ten minutes, then decide that they don’t like that toy and drag something else out to play with. Eventually, the room is a disaster, and there’s nothing left but for a parent to walk in and exclaim, “Clean up your room!”

For those who do find that children are mainly messy, I think that they are also beautiful. They have stunning curiosity, creativity, and trust, and a gorgeous child-like faith; it is almost paradoxical to their messiness.

In this week’s passage, we see how God has called us into His family as his children. We have been adopted into God’s family, and that means we are now His messy but still beautiful children. Children with the background of adoption often carry a large bag of messiness with them, due to difficult past family situations and messy emotions.

We are messy. We mess up, we do things that make God frown upon us. Yet, He still opens his arms and calls us into his family. He may tell us to “clean up our rooms” (make our lives a little cleaner), but even more, He blesses us with an inheritance – it’s so hard to think of the limits to all of the things that are part of the Lord’s inheritance; it is literally everything! 

All of our messiness does not negate the fact that we are beautiful. We are created in His image, the standard of beauty – let’s recapture that beautiful, child-like faith, curiosity, trust, and creativity as we enter into His family!

Although we are inherently messy children of God, He recognizes our beauty and calls us into His family. How can you embrace being a beautifully messy Child of God this week? One place to start could be simply thanking him for his grace that he extends to us as an offering to be a part of his eternal family!