The world as of 2023 is populated by over 8 billion people. In 2017, Population Estimate Bureau estimated about 108 billion people had been born from the beginning of time until now. And I am only one. One among billions. I'll probably never have my name printed in a history book. It's highly unlikely that I'll be an internet sensation for a week or day or even fifteen minutes. And in 150 years, most of my descendants won't even know my name. Kind of makes one feel insignificant. Doesn't it? In High School, I wrestled with feeling worthless. Why did I matter? And more specifically, why did I matter to God? I knew that God made me and that He died for me, but I didn't understand why. Why make billions of people so small and pathetic and seemingly similar? What's the point of us all? What's my point? Does anything that I do matter? Am I of any consequence to God? And God answered my questions with questions: 1) Do you believe that God is unfathomably complex, indescribably beautiful, and thoroughly good? Yes. 2) Do you believe that a billion lifetimes is not long enough to completely comprehend the artistry of God? Yes. 3) Do you believe that a lifetime could be spent studying one facet of God's character, activity, or beauty? Yes. 4) Do you believe that God's facets are innumerable? Yes. 5) Do you believe that all people are made in God's image and thus image bearers? Yes. 6) Do you believe that when God made you, He made you to mirror one-trillionth of His complexity, beauty, and goodness? Yes. 7) Do you believe that that one-trillionth in you can uniquely display a part of God that no one else can? Yes. The questions stopped there as the answers came into focus. I could reflect God in a way that no one else could. True, everyone was made to reflect God, but if I believed that God was infinitely complex and remarkable, then the tiny piece of God's remarkableness in me was enough to give me importance. God reveals Himself through His creation, His word, His son, and His people. We better understand God's beauty and grace when we know and love others around us. When we get to know and love others, we catch a glimpse of God. And I don't mean that we see that person's humanness. I mean we catch a glimpse of the unique, intricate pattern of God that He put there to show Himself to others. It's as if each of us is holding a colored glass pane. When we draw near the light, which is Christ, we cast a new hue of color through our glass onto those around us. It's a color that's never been seen, never in all of history because God is comprised of so many colors that not even all the people in all times could display His radiance. All glorious hues. All captivating and beautiful. We display our colors when we draw near the Lord. Apart from Him, our colored glass windows become dull and dirty, and we do indeed begin to look like everyone else in the world. Our significance was woven into our hearts by Him and is brought to fruition through being in close proximity to Him. That is how the soul feels its worth.
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I love the picture of me holding my unique colored glass but unable to see the beauty of it until I draw close to the light of Christ and, in my unique trillionth life, somehow reflect His glorious light. Thank you Abby.