1 Corinthians 7:7 For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man has his proper gift, one after this manner and another after that.
Isn’t it interesting that when we admire a six year old with autism skillfully delivery a popular song on the piano that we marvel? Why should we be so amazed? Did not his Creator fashion him according to His desire? Isn’t that young child simply being what God intended for him to be?
Isn’t it interesting that many of us will look at that child and wonder what he could be if he were “normal”? You know what I mean, like us; because we are normal to us. However inside his mind that child might wonder why we are not being what our creator intended us to be. He finds it so easy. It is just normal. We have all these strange boundaries and rules which keep us from being who and what our Creator intended us to be. Fashioned by the master’s hand, that’s what the Psalmist said. In Psalm 119:73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me:… Jesus is our creator according to Colossians 1:16. He made us with purpose. He has a plan which includes us being rightly used for His purpose. His purpose includes our willingness to become what He desires and has chosen what is best for us.
Can you imagine a well known architect visiting the construction sight of a structure he had labored over for years to get just the right design? And in his visit he discovers that the builders had decided to use the plans he made to put up a garage instead of a restaurant? Can you see in your minds eye how he would argue and cajole and plead to convince the builders that his plan was for a fabulous restaurant?
He would explain how each material and each doorway and window was intended to make the most efficient and unique restaurant anyone had ever seen. He might even come by in the middle of the night and make structural changes when the builders weren’t looking to help them see his purpose in his plans. He could possibly even cause some damage to what was there in order that the builders might find it not suitable as a garage. Eventually he might just pay off the builders to leave the project so he could do it himself. What if it is not just a restaurant? What if he is not just an architect? What if we are really talking about what you have done with the life God has given you? In the rest of that verse above, the psalmist said “give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments”.
What if the question is really from heaven and it is really asking if you know what or who Jesus intends you to be? That young child was born the way he was because sin entered into the world through Eve and Adam’s transgression. They knew what God wanted them to be and changed His natural design into something different, something it was not meant to be.
That architect had a specific purpose and presentation for his building. He expected it to be used the way he purposed it. God looks upon each of us as having a plan and a purpose and He has thought out very carefully, even perfectly, what our end should be. Our proper gifts are those elements of who we are that allow us to show whose we are. When they are not used for the purpose they were given for we unleash an avalanche of destructive consequences that only someone who has the ability to undo the avalanche can repair.
We call it restoration. God calls it normal. Normal is what He intends not what we define. There is within the power of every man to do other than God knows he will do but he won’t. We choose, for good (which is Godliness) or for evil (which is replacing God with ourselves). Somehow we imagine that our perspective , our plan, our direction is a smarter, better, more effective decision than God’s. Somehow we like Adam and Eve have swallowed the lie and are determined to improve God’s plan. Wouldn’t that be like a three year old child explaining to his experienced truck driving grandfather that he should not travel the way grandpa knows is the safe and right way to arrive at the correct destination? Maybe the three year old arrived at this new direction while stirring a path in the peas on his plate. You might say that perhaps the three year old was given special insight from an angel of the Lord and since he doesn’t know for sure, then grandpa should change. Yeah, that is just exactly like you or I telling an infinitely wise Creator God that our idea is a better way. And I think Paul said something about listening to angels who want you to take a different path.
We are who we are by the mercy and grace of God. We are not a formless accident cast forth at chance or the whim of the wind to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We are intended to be the evidence of His glory for others to see. Some are to be painters, some poets, some singers and some kings. But we are all supposed to be His. Who we are is framed within the context of family and friends and that which is familiar. What we are is framed within the context of performance and physical attributes and achieving goals. But whose we are is framed only within the context of believing and understanding and following the perfect path Jesus has called us into. When the Psalmist said “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” he was not talking about an unknown existence. He continued to say “marvelous are Thy works”, as if he believed that the expectation of mere man could fully appreciate the glories and the greatness of God. And he consents to the wisdom of his Creator by finishing Psalm 139:14 with “and that my soul knows quite well”.
We know His desire, His thoughts for us are good, gooder than any good that we can imagine. In Jeremiah 29:11 He declares His thoughts has an expected end. That end is that we would glorify Him. And we will, one way or the other. His plan is that we choose His way as best. His purpose is that we purpose to be who He designed and desires us to be. He has fully equipped each person to be completely what they are called to be. Our single part in His plan is to be whose we are meant to be. Choose you this day Joshua declared. Choose each day. Will you be who Jesus intends you to be? Will you do what he has designed and equipped you for? Will you choose to belong to Him or the rebellious one?
That six year old boy with autism was equipped by his Creator to amaze and astound the brilliant people around him by being who God intended him to be using all God had given him to do what God had intended him to be because he could choose no other path than to be whose he is.
How about you?
