I get it.
The looking around and the longing to look like others. The wishing we had lives shaped more like theirs. Bodies shaped more like theirs. Personalities and gifts and callings shaped more like theirs.
But here’s the thing…
We were shaped on purpose.
There’s a shape to me and a shape to you. A God-given, well-planned, thoroughly thought-through shape. One that has nothing to do with our own glory and everything to do with His.
We were made on purpose and with purpose. We were made by Him and for Him. And we are called to this glorious work of working together to help the world see the bigger picture of Christ.
Our strengths have purpose. Our weaknesses have purpose. Every detail of our design matters. And if we keep trying change who we are instead of leaning into Him and who He shaped us to be?
Well, it would be a bit like taking a pair of scissors to this puzzle piece to reshape it or painting over it so it could be a “prettier” color or even adding to it to beef it up and make it look bigger and more important. That piece would no longer fit where it was designed to fit. It would no longer reveal the portion of the picture it was designed to reveal. And in trying to be different, not only would this piece miss out on fully fulfilling its original intent… all the world would be cheated out of truly seeing the bigger picture.
And while we would call someone crazy for trying to reshape a simple cardboard puzzle piece, we think nothing of hacking away at our own intricately designed, fearfully and wonderfully made souls.
All of this to say today, sweet friend, don’t spend your days wishing you were more like her, like him, like them.
Don’t despise your design. Yes to growth. Yes to learning from others. Yes to being the healthiest, holiest, humblest version of you He can help you to be.
But don’t despise your design.
Let the Lord fill every corner of it. Let Him show you His glory hidden in the shape of it. And let Him reveal to you how you were designed to work with those around you to reveal more of Him to this world.
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.” Psalm 139:13-14 (NLT)
So much love from here to there,
Kimberly
Kimberly D. Henderson 