Accepted: As Is!

I’m a girl who likes to go to the mall. OK, I love to go to the mall. I go to the mall a lot. I love a good bargain, but I’m not typically the type who scours the sale racks trying to find the perfect buy. I don’t have the patience for that. There are times, however, when the ideal item crosses my path. I instantly fall in love with it . . . but then I see there’s something wrong with it—a missing button, a broken zipper, or a seam that’s starting to come apart. But usually when I find those flaws, I’m happy, not sad, because that’s an instant discount, one I’m all too happy to take advantage of. So I purchase the item, get my discount, and say, “Thank you very much.” Often the salesperson writes on the tag, “Sold as is, no return.”

That is how Jesus accepts us. AS IS. Broken, cracked, tattered, and in all of our ordinariness, he receives us with a no-return policy. He never gives up on us, and he will never give us back. He looks at me with my freckles, my large pores, and my even larger sins, and says, “You are wonderfully and beautifully made.”

Excerpted from A Grand New Day. (Thomas Nelson, Inc.) ©2008.