You Are Special (February 22, 2025)

You may find it hard to believe what was written in the Feb 08.25 blog.  Before you continue here, go back and read that one.

God has always loved you. Before the world even began, God was thinking of you and had plans for your life. Ephesians 1:4: "For he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."

He decided that this world needed someone special, someone just like you. ‘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). And so, He carefully planned everything about you. 

Have you ever thought about your birth date? The time in history when you were born as well as where you were born were important to God. The Bible gives the account of a young woman named Esther who was able to save her nation from being annihilated. “Who knows whether you didn’t come into your royal position precisely for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14). Maybe you can’t envision any divine plan that God might have for you and often it may seem like your life is boring or at best “just an ordinary routine”. I love the stories in the Old Testament that God put there to help us learn about Him and what He does. In Judges 6:11, the Bible tells us that He called Gideon a mighty warrior. This was done while Gideon was in a winepress to hide from the invading Midianites. In those days, wine presses were generally dug into the ground so we know he was afraid and looking out for his own safety. God changed him into a leader who saved his people and Gideon became one of the Bible’s heroes. God will do that for each one of us. We may not have the same role to play as Gideon did but God has designed a unique purpose for each one of us. He is waiting for us to surrender our life by trusting in our Creator, the One Who has the best possible plan for our life. We just need to believe and trust. 

I think that is relevant for all of us to consider about ourselves. God has a purpose for everything about us: the date we are born, the culture we are born into, what family He selected for us, the gifts, talents and abilities He has given us… they all have a purpose. When we surrender our life to Him, all of that plan takes place. I often pray “help me to be the woman that You created me to be.” This includes my character as well as His plans and purposes. It gives a whole different perspective on living!

You may have been told that you were “an accident” or “unplanned” or perhaps that “you should have been different" from what you are (boy/girl, appearance, capability, etc). But God doesn’t make mistakes. The very fact that you exit means that you are not a mistake. He brought you into being and designed you to be who you are. “God doesn't make junk" means everyone has value and significance. 

He chose how you would look: your nationality, your height, your eye colour. He even numbers the hairs on your head! (Matthew 10:29-31). Your personality, gifts, talents, and abilities were all given to you for a reason. Psalm 139: 13-16 (NLT) says “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. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born.”

Just think about how He designed your body to function! That's love. Everything about it shows how remarkable and amazing it is. The passage in Psalm 139 says you were knitted or woven together; in other words your multiple body systems each have a special function, and are interconnected to work together. Information that needs to go from one system to the others is carried by the remarkable DNA.

The internal organs function automatically. For example, your heart beats without you having to do anything. Your lungs cause air to come and go from your body. It’s true that you have to eat to feed your body but once you swallow the food, your body system takes over, digesting it and sending all the proper nutrients to the organs that need them, and then flushes the unneeded out of your body. You can scratch all the above off your “to-do” list; God’s taken care of that for you! That's love.

Being a trained nurse, I am well aware that sometimes there can be irregularities in genetic makeup and health issues. I've worked in medical and surgical departments as well as in emergency and labour-and-delivery. I have also worked many years in psychiatry. We live in a fallen world where abnormalities and problems occur but they are not the original God design. Because He is a compassionate God, He has given knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and resources to help us with the troubles these things bring. There are various scientists who research ways and means of prevention and management, and skilled doctors and other medical personnel to help in restoration, recovery, and life adjustments.

God was also intentional in providing things for our pleasure. He could have decided to just have one monotone sound, or no sound at all in the world. But He didn't. Instead He gave us an elaborate symphony of sounds, with ears to hear and a voice to make them. Every thing in nature has a sound that it makes even though it may be so subtle that you can't hear its sound waves. He could have decided to omit the sense of taste. But He didn't. He provided sweet, salty, bitter, and sour flavours and put buds in the tongue to be able to taste them. He could have made a black-and-white world but He didn't. Instead he made colours to give variety and beauty. In nature, He created different animals, birds, fish, flowers, trees, etc, etc. He put stars in the heavens to wink at you in the night and fluffy clouds floating across the sky to fire up your imagination. Each time you look at something in nature, you can see how God loves to amaze and delight you!

I imagine He’s like a parent thinking “Wait until you see this!” while watching a child opening gifts. I pray that you will begin to see the lavishness of God's love in the gifts He has given.

 You are constantly in His thoughts, much more than you can imagine!  Zephaniah 3:17 says God takes delight in you and rejoices over you with singing.

There are so many ways God expresses His love. But the greatest gift was Jesus! “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

Now repeat that with your name. “For God so loved ----- that he gave his one and only Son, that when ----- believes in him, ----- shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Remember that God loves you more than you can even begin to imagine.

Blessings, Pastor Judy 

Watch for the next blog to see what Jesus did for you!