If we’re honest, don’t we all want to know that we’re special? We want to know that there is something uniquely unique about our “me-ness” that we have to offer to the world – and to others. We want to know that if we weren’t here, life would be just a little bit different. Not necessarily better or worse (though hopefully worse without us) …but at least, different.
I think God made us that way.
He made us with something deep within us that desires to be known, desires to be recognized, desires to be understood.
I love the way Jesus interacted with the woman at the well. Here was a man who told her things about herself that a stranger passing through town wouldn’t have known. They talked for some time and when she left to tell others about him, her statement was “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.” (John 4:29). Even though it couldn’t have been an easy conversation (after all, He was addressing the fact that she’d been married a bunch of times and was currently shacking up with someone), she was so happy that he saw her. That he acknowledged her. That he knew her. He knew that she was more than the sum parts of her earthly mistakes and regrets.
How often do we take the time to truly know people? To know what makes them different? How God created them with unique talents, gifts, thoughts, even struggles… To know what they are passionate about? To know what breaks their heart? To look past the superficial, the layer that anyone can easily see…and dig deeper. Purposely seek out that beneath-the-surface-space that requires true intimacy. True commitment to the knowing.
What would happen if we took the time to really consider that? To look at each relationship that God gives us and consider what makes it special? To consider why our lives have intersected? To consider how we are supposed to steward/care for that relationship?
That’s my challenge to you this week. Recognize who is in your life right now…and why. Fully appreciate the uniqueness of that person. And what you have to add to each other’s life – even if just for a season. It isn’t an accident. God foreknew and fore-planned that interaction. And you never know – it just may be a purple unicorn – something rare. Something one of a kind. Something beyond unique. Something many would not even see only because they weren’t really looking…
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…”
Jeremiah 1:5
