My husband and I are different … very different … like many couples … one is a hoarder and one is a thrower outer… well, I’m the one who just loves to throw stuff out .. especially when it’s not mine!!!!
Anyway, I found myself with an opportunity earlier this year. I needed to tackle our loft to create space … I went upstairs and found, like many folks do, that several lives had been lived up there in varies boxes of stuff, and indeed not all of them were my lives!!!... In fact, I had been storing so much stuff (for various brothers to come and collect next time they visited with a van -never), I was quite amazed that my ceilings had not collapsed under the sheer weight!
So, I thought to myself let’s problem solve… umm maybe the shed has some room in it? After I had managed to shove the door open, I was arrested and lets say ‘exasperated’ by the sight of a younger brother’s chest of drawers , sideboard, washing machine and the likes … ( ok in fairness the washing machine was the older brother’s)… blinking henry, I’m a fool! I’ve become a storage unit for my entire wider family… for the last 7 years! So, I set to with perseverance, made some phone calls, then tipped as much as I could… spitting feathers all the while I may add!
Now back in the loft, I came upon an old memory box I had made for myself year ago… intrigued I opened it up and found that one of the items it contained was now too small, too worn out and too out of date to ever warrant being useful again ... I was never going to fit into a furry fluffy red jumper made for a 7-year-old but throw it I could not … this jumper is unique, it’s perfect, just not a good fit anymore! It has no market value, it has no high street label, it won’t ever go up in value like an antique but, to me you see, it’s one of the most valued possessions I own. You see every row was knitted in love, every cuff and neckline put together with the greatest of care because the person who made that jumper loved me like no other ... she was my grandmother. My value in that jumper is no longer in the function of it like it was when I was a child, now its value holds true because of the representation of its maker.
That maker made that sweater out of love for me just as our maker God, the creator of the universe, made us to be in the universe. He knitted you together in your mother’s womb, He made you with a planned personality in mind, with a future, with promise. Most of all He made you with such uniqueness, it would be impossible for you to ever be the same as anyone else. He doesn’t want you to ever be like anyone else, he made you as you … you were handmade, hand chosen, hand woven. Why then do you want to put yourself on a production line to be remodelled to be like everyone else?
God spent 9 months making the finer details of you and started work on designing you before the beginning of time. Why? Because he wanted you to be just like you are, the apple of his eye. You weren’t mass produced on purpose, you were made as a one off for a reason and, in my book, that makes you a piece of art, remarkably valuable and indescribably beautiful to the eye of your beholder, Father God.
So, be who you are, shine as God designed you to be. In Gods kingdom people have value not because of what they do, not because of how they look, not because of how much they are worth, but because of whose they are.
Ps 139 v 13-14
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
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