October 2026

Beloved,

Recently, a conversation stirred something in me and brought back memories of my younger
years. I remember how distant God sometimes felt to me, holy and far away, and at times even a
little frightening.

I grew up hearing often about human sinfulness and about salvation as something that
happened at a particular moment, or something we would fully experience someday after this
life. I believed these things, yet I often carried an uneasiness I could not quite name. Somewhere
along the way, the emphasis on our sinfulness made it difficult for me to hold onto another
truth: that we are created in the image of God and are, before anything else, God’s beloved
children.

Looking back, I realize that I had slowly lost sight of grace, not because I stopped believing in it,
but because I had forgotten what it meant to receive God’s grace personally, as someone already
held and loved by God.

Perhaps some of you have felt that way, too. As I have grown, I keep returning to a simple
question: Who am I, really? Not who others expect me to be. Not my successes or failures, my
fears or regrets, or even the roles I carry. Who am I at the deepest place within me? And I am
beginning to believe that discovering who we truly are is inseparable from discovering who God
is.

Genesis tells us that we are created in the image of God (1:26–27). There is something sacred
about that truth. Before we accomplish anything, before we have our lives together, before we
stumble or fall, we are already God’s beloved. And most of all, God drew near to us in the person
of Jesus, fully human and fully divine, revealing just how deeply God loves us.

I am still learning to trust this. Perhaps the spiritual journey is not so much about becoming
someone completely different, but about becoming more fully the person God created us to be,
our truest self, rooted in God’s love and continually awakened by the Holy Spirit.

There is something deeply humbling and freeing about this. We do not have to earn God’s love.
We do not have to prove that we are worthy of it. We receive it.

That is grace. Perhaps this is one of the beautiful gifts of the church: that we remind one
another, especially when we forget, who we are, whose we are, and that God is nearer than we
often realize.

So, beloved, I invite you to walk this journey with me. In the quiet moments of your days,
perhaps pause and gently ask: Who am I when I remember that I am deeply loved by God?
Where might God’s presence already be stirring within me? What would it mean for me to
become the person God created me to be?

We do not need to have all the answers. We do not need to become perfect. We can simply come
as we are and allow God’s grace to meet us there.

May we discover, little by little, who we are in God and who God is in us. May this discovery
bring healing to our hearts, compassion toward ourselves, love toward one another, and a
deeper openness to the world God so deeply loves.

Perhaps, together, we are learning, not to become someone else, but to become more fully who
God has created us to be.

Peace and Blessings,
Pastor Cindie