Giving Thanks For God's Unique "Hobby": You know, in some way or another, God has built pockets of nerdiness into everyone’s personality.

There’s no use denying it, we’ve all got it - that little bit of ‘nerd.’ One guy likes cars, another one likes hunting. One lady collects Christmas ornaments, one of her friends likes a certain kind of pottery made in a certain way. This person is really into cooking, that person loves hiking. One guy loves Science Fiction, while his wife is big into Western Romances. I could keep going on this (here’s looking at you comic book collector), but I won’t. I don’t need to.

It’s the simple, beautiful truth that God has made each one of us unique. And our personalities are really just the total summation of our likes, dislikes, loves, hungers, pursuits, passions, interests, disinterests, strivings, longings, hopes, fears, and dreams. All of them rolled into one, all of them put together in the exact specific arrangement that God wanted - and peppered with some pockets of nerdiness.

You know God has pockets of nerdiness too. (Well, kind of).

I know, I know. I can hear you asking, “What kind of hobby can the infinite, all-powerful, eternal one have?” Well, the answer is: You.

Always You.

You’re his hobby, his pursuit, his treasure, his love, his child. He saw you from eternity, he loved you, and he was passionate about acquiring you. So he went after you. He sought you. He pursued you. He purchased you at the astronomical price of his Son’s blood. He collected you with the saving waters of Baptism. And he’s always looking at you, treasuring you, protecting you from the dust and wrinkles and damage of sin.

What a thought!

So during this season of Thanksgiving we don’t just give thanks for food and home and warmth and fun. We do give thanks for all those things (as we should). But that’s not all. We give thanks that we are his passion, his pursuit, his treasure. We give thanks that he has purchased us with his Son’s blood. We give thanks that he took the eternal, unstoppable, unbeatable arc of his love and focused it on us.

So have a happy, joyful Thanksgiving!

And feel free to nerd it up once in a while.

We thank Good Shepherd's pastor, Reverend Joshua Zarling, for this week's blog post.