A Royal Bloodline

On Friday, I watched a movie I have watched many, many times before. But this time, a particular scene struck me in a way it never has before. The movie is "A Knight's Tale" and the back story is that William is a peasant who, through an interesting turn of events, winds up jousting in tournaments as a knight even though he is not of Royal birth. (He essentially is pretending to be someone else.) Well the villain finds out about it and has William thrown in jail. This particular scene takes place when the Prince hears of what happened and comes to pardon William. As I watched on Friday, I could not help but see it as a metaphor for salvation. God knows who we are and how sinful and dirty we are. He knows we aren't deserving of His grace and pardon. But His love for us surpasses our past, our actions, our name, even our identity. When the prince in this clip says, "He is part of an ANCIENT royal bloodline," I kid you not, I just about took to shouting. This was just further confirmation of our place in Him. We are royalty. We are sons and daughters of the King. {Link to clip is below.}

God has been showing me some really powerful things through music and His word. I got the new Ellie Holcomb album last week and it has wrecked me in all the best ways. The two songs that have just steeped in my spirit are "You are Loved" and "Wonderfully Made". They have a similar message and it is one that I think I desperately need to hear right now (right now and at every point in my life). I have always been a doer. Big time. I have found my identity in actions and success and a hectic pace. Since summer, that has had to change for me. In July I had health issues that led to me decided it was going to be necessary to slow things down drastically. Then in August, we started the adoption process, which has certainly come with its own hectic pace BUT it has all been internal, so to speak. I have spent this school year, in a mixture of choice and necessity, turned inward to my own home and family. I have not had time to work hard on other things, I have not had energy to be spread between the huge changes in our own household and family AND outside interests and causes. There have been some moments of me wondering if I'm still enough.... if I'm still valuable to people around me when I can't do as much for them... if I still matter when I am not seeing successes and validation. I don't feel as strongly connected to the people in my life outside of my immediate circle as I normally do.  And I know that my next 6 years are going to look very much like the current one I am living. I cannot parent five teenagers, work a full-time job, keep up a side business, pursue my ministry passions, and also maintain the pace and nature of the life I had previously lived. So I need to be reminded by God that I AM enough for Him. He sees the me inside, not the deeds outside. In Him, I am "wonderfully made". A few lines of that song are below. I couldn't find the lyrics to "You are Loved" online but the chorus says, "You are loved, not because of what you've done, even when your heart has run the other way, nothing's going to change His love. You are wanted, not because you are perfect, I know that you don't think you're worth that kind of grace but look into His face and know.... You are loved." "He knew, before you even took a breath, that there would be days when you would forget how beautiful He made you." WOW. 

"Wonderfully Made" by Ellie Holcomb

What if I saw me the way that you see me
What if I believed it was true
What if I traded this shame and self-hatred
For a chance at believing you
That you knit me together in my mother's womb
And you say that I've never been hidden from you
And you say that I'm wonderfully, wonderfully made

What an incredible God we serve. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWgf-UqkD_A&app=desktop