Though we can make things quite messy – including our lives and our family’s lives – I am thankful that God loves us through the messes we make. 
For example, I know that Abraham and Sarah were godly people. However, as we read their story in the Bible, we see that they still struggled to do what was right. Some of the errors they made: Abraham was fearful that the attractiveness of Sarah could get him killed as they travelled (he had more fear of man than he had trust in God). His fear led them to tell half-truths to several people (another word for that would be lying!). There was also impatience with God’s timing, which led Abraham to sleep with Hagar to help God out instead of waiting on Him. Then there was Sarah’s jealousy and mistreatment of Hagar. And yet, through it all, God was good to Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac.
That’s the amazing God we serve – still loving us in the midst of our messy mistakes and sins.
And we see this repeated in Abraham’s grandson Jacob, though it seems to get even worse. We find out that Jacob was a liar who deceived his brother and father, but his uncle Laban turned the tables on him, which landed him with two wives (which was not God’s plan for marriage). And his wife Leah finds herself married to a man who didn’t choose her. Leah was in this mess of a situation due to the lies of her father and herself. She was part of the lie which wed her to Jacob. Not only that, can you imagine the anger that this act would have provoked in Rachel, knowing that her older sister tricked the man she loved into this marriage. So add in family divisiveness. What a mess. 
And yet, even though Jacob didn’t love Leah in the way that he loved Rachel, God still loved Leah and blessed her. And even though Jacob had also been a deceiver, God still loved Jacob.
The whole story is strange, and it is a bit difficult to understand God’s working through what seems such a dysfunctional family full of deceit and jealousy. However, even with all of the sinfulness in the family, God still loved them and had a plan for them. I’m thankful for this story!
Here’s why: I’m glad to know that God is so gracious and forgiving toward us. I’m so glad that He still has a plan to work through the messes that I make in my own life and within my own family.
Aren’t you glad He loves you and works through your messes too?
You don’t have to clean up your life to come to Jesus. But once you come to Jesus, He will begin cleaning you up. Come as you are, with all of your messiness. Turn your messy life over to Him. He’ll love you in the midst of it all, and He’ll begin to clean you up.
Take a moment to thank God that even though you have been a mess and you have made some messes, that He is a God who loves, a God who forgives, and a God who redeems!
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