Accepted in the Beloved

I was just reading a new blog today. Don't you just love it when you read something and it is just what you need to hear? Or it reminds you of something that is just what you need to hear?
That happened to me today.
Feeling accepted and good is at the core of a sensuous woman. It's the foundation. The solid place everything else grows out of. and that foundation needs maintenance. It's important. Really.
So I was reading Sara's experience of feeling accepted and good and at peace with her place in the world. And it was beautiful to read. Sara's lovely story reminded me of this phrase from the Bible that I haven't read in ages but the phrase stayed with me. It is "accepted in the beloved".

Now that's a real good phrase. I mean, who wouldn't want to be accepted and beloved, right?
Golly, I sure do.
So I looked it up. There's this great portal for people like me who remember little snippets and tidbits of the Bible but have absofreakinlutely no idea where the verses are. It's called crosswalk.com. So I looked the phrase up. Boy O boy what a treasure trove I found!
It's like a love letter.
This little bit from the Bible actually IS a letter and that letter says the following about me (and you too:
Dear lady who is faithful to love Jesus,
God and Jesus will give you grace.
God and Jesus will give you peace.
Woo-hoo for God because he is Da Man who-by giving us Jesus-has given us every single thing our hearts will ever need.
It was God's intent to love us from the start and he desired all along that we would be his kids. He wants us to be faultless and without blame in his eyes, so in his love he made a way for that to happen. Cause if it were up to us, we would be totally screwed. So he set up this great idea for an exchange where we could trade in our crummy oodles of mistakes for Jesus' perfect record. This made him very happy and gave him no end of delight because he wanted us to love him all along. How can we not brag on him? Becuase even though we screwed up time and time again, he cut us the slack that was only his to give. His grace bailed us out for sure! And that grace not only bailed our sinful asses out of trouble, it gave us a whole new sense of belonging! and love! Cause we have this incredible amazing bond with other people who have also been bailed out by grace. Sort of a spiritual ex-con alumni club. All over the world there are people who have also been scooped up by this grace we've experienced. And what a bond! To know that there are others who couldn't make it on their own either, even though they tried just as hard as we did, they eventually saw that God could and would do for them what they could not do for themselves. So they cashed in on that deal right away. And now there is a whole family of formerly screwed up kids who are now accepted and loved by this generous loving God. How cool to know there are others who have received this kind of do-over from God and know how it feels, how good and humbling and what an incredible relief it is. And who else can accept you in this second chance on life that you've been given except someone else who's also been given this second chance? There's a whole family of second chance folks who are letting God bail them out and make them strong and good on the inside. There's a sense of belonging that no one can fully describe. But once you experience it you know how freakin' fantastic it truly feels! We belong to the good and loved family. We may not have started out this way, but we will finish out this way and finishing well is what counts.
That's my paraphrase of Ephesians 1:1-6. If you want to read the King James way, it's here.