Possessions

I took a walk with God in the sunshine yesterday, and I was pondering Ephesians 1. As I wandered, ogling the flowers coming out and the mountains in the distance and the white clouds in the bright blue sky, I was amazed at life, and God's handiwork. I was also struck, meditating on words from Ephesians, by my utter creatureliness.

The first phrase to catch me was, "Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession, to the praise of his glory." I thought about the words "God's possession."  It seems to objectify people so much. Just objects to be owned. Really, it works well with the idea of redemption. God bought us back, paid something for us. That's how we relate to objects we own.

The next phrase was, "we were by nature objects of wrath." Again with the objectifying! Just recipients of divine anger and punishment. I mean, the verse even says "objects."

In Christian talk, it's easy to say that everything belongs to God. We easily say (not necessarily act) all the things we own are really God's possessions. We even say that we belong to God. But yesterday my mind stopped short on this idea that I am really not in control. I am truly a possession, an object. God is the actor. I like to think I'm in charge, that I have a will and the power to carry it out. This is true to some extent, maybe, but really - I'm a creature. Something that God created. I was an "object of wrath" but now, through the redemption bought by Christ's blood, I am God's chosen possession. There's not really anything I could do about it, or that I can even do now. I am the clay in the hands of the Potter.

It's humbling to be reminded of that. I am reminded that I am not in charge. God acted. God acts. Maybe it's not such a horrible thing to be objectified. And by the riches of God's grace, which he freely LAVISHES on us, knowing full well what he's doing, we are precious despite our creatureliness. Or because of it?