Uniquely Formed

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5

I have so many thoughts about the scripture. I was driving to work and thought about the many innocent children aborted over the decades. I often hear discussion about who these children would have been, what problems in society they could have solved.

My mind turned to the controversy of people and vaccines and how many are opposed to vaccines because an aborted fetus was used in the initial creation of the first vaccines. While I don’t condone abortion, this child’s life was not in vain. He or she saved many lives. The donation was not voluntary, but it was a donation of life, even in death. Much like an organ donation, the death had already occurred. Good came of it. Life can continue because of it. Not just one life but many lives across the world. I hate that a child’s life was ended, but I am grateful for the choice that was made to use it for good.

My next thought goes to a conversation I had yesterday with one of my teens. I had shared how often the enemy tries to tell us we are so different and isolates us for that. We are uniquely made by God, formed in our mother’s womb. Yet we are more alike in our purpose, which also makes us normal.

When you look out across the orchard, you see trees producing fruit. They are normal trees. If you inspect the trees closely they are all different. Since Adam and Eve in the garden, we have been trying to hide our differences. In their sin, they picked the fruit after looking at it. They listened to the enemy and ate it.

Naturally speaking, we spank a kids hand for touching something they shouldn’t. We cover their eyes to prevent them from seeing something they shouldn’t. We cover their ears to prevent them from hearing things they don’t need too. Our mouth gets covered if we are saying something that we shouldn’t be. Yet Adam and Eve didn’t cover those parts, they covered what made them different from each other. The enemy likely had a part in that.

We are made in the image of God. We all have normal things that make us like everyone else. Yet we also have subtle differences that I believe are the uniqueness of God being displayed in our lives. We are after all His creative masterpiece. The Angels can cry holy, holy, holy continually. There must be many facets of God for them to stay in awe of Him for all these centuries. So each of us is uniquely displaying some characteristic of God. This is why twins have subtle differences. Even two people with the gift of compassion express it differently.

We serve a big God and He wants us to celebrate our differences not try to hide them. He wants us to share our unique perspective, our unique thoughts. We have to stop telling ourselves that our differences need to be hidden, and let God shine through us.

Lord, help me to boldly share the uniqueness You have placed within me to the world. Allow me, and all that you formed within me, since You made Your image not to be hidden. I love yYu and I want to display your glory.