I saw a bumper sticker that said, “If God had a wallet your picture would be in it.” I know. I know. God doesn’t have a wallet or a purse or a pants pocket to put it in. But just think: What would it be like if we believed that our pictures—ours and mine and even crabby uncle Cornelius who kvetches about everything—what if all of our pictures were in God’s wallet and taped to God’s refrigerator and posted as screen savers on God’s mega-computer in the sky? What might that mean?

When we pull out our own wallets, what do we see? Pictures of the ones who mean the most to us: parents and children and lovers and friends. We don’t hang onto any old pictures. Those faces mean something to us. There are whole stories, and precious ones at that, behind those grinning or sulky or somber or even dorky poses. So what about God? Here’s the thing at the center of the life of faith: God treasures us, knows our gnarly, knotted peculiar stories and still loves us each prodigally, illimitably, beyond anything we can ask or imagine, not because of anything we’ve done but just because we are. Take a moment every now and then to imagine this splendid mystery: God’s got your picture and smiles while looking at it. How’s that make you feel? And what are you going to do about it?