For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. ~Ephesians 2:10
I take the albums off the shelf, one by one. Before putting them in the box, I just can’t resist cracking them open. Taking a stroll down memory lane. One in particular catches my attention. Letters from grade school teachers during a transition from one school to another. Three different teachers all had similar things to say…
She is always reading. Every spare moment she has is spent with a book.
Out of the 125 books in the classroom collection, she has read 95% of them.
We never see her without a book in hand.
And then I come across my 8th grade writing test results.
The scoring scale is from 175 to 260. This test score is 272.
I not only topped the chart – I surpassed it. In the 8th grade. Is it possible I knew myself better then than I do now??
I cant help but think about how God has prepared me to do his work since I was a small child. I was created to read. Created to write. As a very small child, I always had a book in hand. I self-published my first book – an autobiography – when I was in the first grade.
But somewhere along the way I got distracted. I no longer read for fun. I forgot to pick up my pen and paper. It wasn’t cool to always have my head in a book. I needed to make friends – to be popular – to be “in.”
And when I started finding that part of me - when I started to revive the creativity deep within my soul - I had babies ... and I was afraid my creativity was gone forever.
But recently I've been feeling that pull to create once again. A dear friend once told me that creativity does come back postpartum ... but that sometimes it takes a year or two. So here I am - two years postpartum for the second time - and I'm once again working to rediscover who God has created me to be.
It’s like discovering a forgotten gift that has been shoved to the back of your closet. You knew it was there – but you had so many other things to keep you busy. You just didn’t have time to find a place for it.
But when you discover it – when you unwrap it for the second, or third, or even fourth time – you begin to realize how God has placed it in your life over and over and over again.
For we are what he has made us …
God is constantly preparing us to answer his call. He’s constantly showing us tiny glimpses of who he has created us to be. Quiet whispers of what he has prepared for us.
And when we answer … when we finally say yes … it feels like all is right with the world.
It’s not always easy to say yes. It sometimes means turning away from those we love. It often means saying no to things we want. There are so many things left unknown. So many uncertainties.
And let’s face it – if we’re honest with ourselves, it’s often more difficult to say yes than it is to say no. Saying yes means a lifetime of being in the dark. But yet at the same time – a lifetime of living in a light brighter than anything we could ever possibly imagine.
And so I continue to stroll down memory lane. Remembering the paths I’ve taken and the people I’ve met. Recognizing God’s presence in each and every one of them. And realizing, in a very new way, that God knew who I was going to be before I was born. He created me to do great things.
And every day I uncover just a little bit more of what he’s got in store for me.
How are you discovering who God’s created you to be? What’s your purpose?
This post was originally published at Bibledude.net. It has been edited ever so slightly to reflect a new stage of life since it was first written in 2012. Because life changes, but our purpose remains.