Psalm 103 is one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. It speaks of God’s unimaginable love and His plenteous mercy toward us, His children. It is hard for me to understand how God loves us all. He doesn’t love only the sweet, honorable person who is likeable and seems to make all the right choices in life. But, He equally loves the one who seems to hate everyone in their life and who seems intent on making everyone else hate them. Why does God love us equally? What does He see in us that we often don’t see? “He knows our frame”…
How could the fact that “God knows our frame” cause Him to love us and be merciful to us? I thought about that question with the idea in mind of builders building a house. The builders may begin on a beautiful site with the finest materials. Then because of finances, impatience, lack of know-how, or simply inattentiveness bad material is used in the frame, and it is thrown together haphazardly. Even though the house is beautiful outwardly, the frame has been damaged and will need serious and expensive repairs to be safe. The same happens with so many Mom’s and Dad’s who began their family with high hopes for a beautiful future, and bright dreams of what their children would become when they were grown. Then heartache, impatience, lack of know-how or a myriad of events cause them to begin haphazardly throwing the frame together that is the structure for their child’s future. Many children grow up never being aware that they can change, and that their frame can be made strong morally and spiritually.
Our Master Builder recognizes the damage in the frame of His children and recognizes the bad choices that are made because of bad framing. He sees the one who has been sexually abused who thinks the only way they can find love is through promiscuity, or the one who lies, cheats and steals that is seeking the attention they’ve never known, or the person who abuses others because they hope to get rid of some of the pain they have suffered. God still loves those them, though He isn’t content with them to remain like they are. (Like Max Lucado said, “God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way.)
God sees the heartache of parents dying, the abuse, neglect, desertion, or total lack of love that have formed the warped and unsteady frame of the beautiful child we see. He has given us the task of helping with the extensive repairs in the lives of these children so they can grow into adulthood being not only beautiful outwardly, but being structurally safe.
