This is the part of the story where God shows up. Ezekiel 16: 6 recounts this well-known moment: “When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, 'Live!' Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, 'Live!'” God spoke the world into being and commanded the nation of Israel to be established. He spoke light into your world and truth into your heart. John Wesley wrote of this verse in his explanatory notes: “This is such a command as sends forth a power to effect what is commanded; he gave that life: he spoke, and it was done.” The world is full of people reaching out for the favor of a being they call God: in Far East ancient mountain temples, and Amazonian witch-doctor huts, in the underground churches of the Middle East, and over tears and empty bottles in bars. Every religion and culture has rituals and rules that claim to enable its followers to become people who attract the approving attention of their god. This is not the heart of Christian love. God’s eye has certainly noticed you, and beauty and worth are significant to this story, but not at this point. The fulfillment of every rule and ritual in Christianity is love; John wrote of this: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). What is it about you that you admire about yourself, what is it that you excel at, what are the ways in which you are beautiful? God has a purpose for all of your beauty and gifts, and they need to be set free from being used to attract His approval of you. You already have it. Fill your best qualities in the middle of Deuteronomy 7:7-8: “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were _________, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers...”
What was true of Israel then is still true of you now. God’s rescue and pursuit of you has always been, and always will be, based in His nature of love and delight that spills over onto unworthy children thrown by the wayside and rejected by men. Your response to God’s pursuit is vital to the story of your life. Your beauty has a purpose. These are deep issues that many people down-play because they end the story with God’s first movement towards us which is unconditional. Be sure to both continue on in the narrative, and to save the importance of your role in the story for then.
This truth will free you to have an identity not based in the validation of anything but the cross that proclaims your worth. It is always a perspective-giving exercise for me to take up Paul’s exhortation to “consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen...” (1 Corinthians 1: 26-29).
This is the part of the story where God shows up. Ezekiel 16: 6 recounts this well-known moment: “When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you while you were in your blood, 'Live!' Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, 'Live!'” God spoke the world into being and commanded the nation of 
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I really love this truth: "He loved you because he loved you. He set is affection on you because he set his affection on you."
(SD -- I came over to your Blog to rebuke you for not using your gift, and have found that you *have in fact* Blogged in the past few months. To the shame of technology, my Blogreader was not picking up your feed. I've fixed that and so now I'm back and reading. But only when you are ready to write.)
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