Beautiful Design

 “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

-Jeremiah 29:11

To be honest, I have moments when I don’t know the answers. Days when depression grips my soul and I am anxious about the future. I find myself in situations when I am afraid to step out, terrified my words will fall on deaf ears or that they will turn those I love away from me. Sometimes I want to give up even though I know I never could. You see I am human, and this Christian life isn’t easy.

But I chose this path and I’m sticking to it! You see, it’s all the certainties, the truths I believe without a doubt to be true that lift me up every time I fall. Satan can’t shake me from what I know, he can’t make me forget what I have already seen for myself. God is Good. I know it and I’ve seen it, and so when life seems to be full of bad things I can instantly look at the big picture and realize that it is just satan trying to shake this truth in me. That truth is where my hope rests, and it isn’t determined by circumstance.

I took this picture above while walking through a garden in Delaware. This flower caught my eye because it was so beautiful, and it was only just about to bloom. Every part of it fit together perfectly, and yet it was made to unfold and display its inner beauty to the world. If it had only been a bud, I wouldn’t have seen what it had to offer.

Maybe our lives are this way. We all suffer greatly in this life, we have our ups and downs, sometimes on a daily basis. And yet God sees the big picture, the entirety of our lives and our eternities, and to Him, I bet we are much like this beautiful flower, only in mid-bloom, just starting to discover who we are.

Sometimes I don’t feel like I am good enough. What do I have to offer? What giftings do I really have compared to others? …recently, our friend who recently lost his wife in a car accident said that when his wife would try to measure her worth in what she could do, he would tell her that “You are the gift.”

That was displayed in who she was to others, how she had lifted them up, was a friend and mother to them. A sister, a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen. Someone who remembered people and saw the beauty in them when others couldn’t. She was the gift. She didn’t have to be good at anything but being herself. Being who God called her and formed her to be. No one can be the best you. You are the gift, and maybe even the answer to someone’s prayer.

We are all a part of God’s beautiful design, we are all but flowers in His garden, and He is the gardener, watering, pruning, and smiling as we discover who we are and start to bloom. Each of us displaying our own unique hue and shape and design. And all of us pointed toward the Sun.

 

 

 

Advertisement