Dark yet Lovely

I am continuing to read the book Deep Unto Deep by Dana Candler and I am trying to let the truth of it wash over me. Right now I am seeking out what it truly means to be dark yet lovely in the sight of God. I understand it in my head but in my heart there is not a connection yet. I don't have a grid for understanding this type of love and acceptance. Here's a section of the book for you to enjoy. May it speak truth to you as much as it has to me.

To know that I am dark yet lovely is to understand my weakness, which is comprised of my sinfulness, my immaturity and my natural limitations together with the revelation of my loveliness to Him. David expresses this twofold mystery in Psalm 86, "Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me; for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life for I am holy..." (1-2, emphasis added)

When He gazes upon me, instead of seeing only that which has fully come into maturity, He perceives the yet-maturing virtues within me. He hears my inward cries to fully belong to Him. When I stumble in my persistent weakness, His gaze pierces through my external struggle and sees, in my spirit, the internal flame of true yearning to be His. With His eyes of fire, He perceives the continual cry deep within my heart to belong fully to Him, and He calls it part of my "lovliness." He defines me by the things that are not yet revealed as though they were. When I lie on my bed at night and long for victory in my weak areas, He esteems my longing precious and receives my cry.

We must accurately perceive how God thinks about us in our weakness. He's a God of unending kindness, and His mercy is not challenged by our lack. That Jesus could be filled with love and enjoyment in someone when he or she is still stumbling and immature seems unrighteous or unjust to our false understandings of Him. We imagine that this kind of affection is possible only when we are fully pure, holy and mature. Yet the glorious good news of all time is that Jesus, the perfect One, set His affections on those who were fully weak and undeserving. While we were still His enemies, He died for us, and while we are yet immature, He enjoys us. This isn't to say He enjoys sin but that He delights in the lover of God who is yet in the struggle against besetting sins.

We are far weaker than we realize and far lovelier than we realize, and yet even in our greatest weakness God perceives in us more beauty than we can imagine. Our loveliness is not an attribute gained by our attainments. It is a gift of God. He sees us beautiful because of what He Himself has accomplished in our salvation and transformation.

-Dana Candler, Deep Unto Deep

God receive our weak attempts at love. We don't understand You but You know us full well. Bring revelation to our hearts of the true nature of who You are. It is only in that revelation that we can begin to see who we are in You. Awaken our hearts to love. Awaken our hearts to You.