By Tamara Jane

Recently I was at a clothing store, shopping with a gift card I had received for Christmas. I was searching my favorite place in the store: the clearance rack. When something caught my eye, I went through my routine as always, which is to look first at the price, then the size. Then I examined the tag to see how to launder it and of what material it was. Usually when I find a medium that I love, I consider altering it or perhaps just wearing a larger size if possible. However, this time around, I was frustrated by the fact that almost all the clothes on the clearance rack were size mediums.
That caused me to think back to other shopping trips and I realized that this wasn’t the only time I had encountered mostly mediums. It seems that almost everything you find at a discount price is a size medium. If you’re a medium, that’s good news for you, but with so many mediums left on the rack, I concluded that maybe there aren’t as many mediums as retailers think. Where are all the happy mediums? Are they squeezing into size small? If so, I think maybe they are not happy, at least with their body size.
So here’s a shout out to all you who should have bought that medium but decided to squeeze into a small, and to all those who are buying up the sizes large and extra large too. This is to say to you how special, precious, loved and beautiful you are in the eyes of your maker and to hopefully help you feel happier about your size, and not waste one more minute with self-destructive, critical thoughts.
Almost everyone knows John 3:16 (the verse that tells us that God loved us so much that He sent his only Son to die for us so that we might live forever with Him in eternity). But there are many more verses that demonstrate how He loves us and how we are beautiful to him.
Let’s start at the very beginning. In Genesis 1:27-31, God saw all He had made, including female, and He declared it “very good.” You have been seen by your maker, and He thinks that you are very good. The God who makes no mistakes made you and finds you perfect. That counts for something, doesn’t it?
But, in a sense, we can go back even further than that. Jeremiah 1:4-5 tells us that before we were even formed in the womb, before our parents planned on having kids, or knew each other, God knew us. Not just that another little girl, but that YOU (insert name here) would be born. And that you would be very special – so special that you would be worth spending 33 years away from Heaven and dying for! He also says in this verse that He set us apart. He sanctified us. He has plans for us that are way bigger than us. And certainly way bigger than the size on a tag at a clothing store.
In Ruth 3:10, God calls us His daughters and says that we are blessed – too blessed to be moping about the size on that tag.
And there are a whole bunch more verses that show us we are special. I could list more, but I want to challenge you to find some on your own. Use an online Bible and concordance; go searching, it will mean more if you find it for yourself. And then read Song of Songs. (Yes, the whole book; it’s only eight chapters.) Imagine that this book was written to you by God. Bask in His love.
You mean so much more to your Creator than any price-tag could reflect. When He looks at you, He doesn’t see a size. He sees your heart. Focus on making that clean, pure and set apart for Him. It’s a much more worthwhile pursuit than trying to fit into a size small or extra small. God loves you and nothing material (and how much more material can you get than clothes) can change that.