One of a Kind, You Are

When my Granddaughter was a baby, there was a special song between us.  She would get quiet when I sang it.  Her wise infant eyes would search my own and her hand would rub my cheek.  As she grew, she loved music, but that song emerged again and again.  It was on my computer play list and often she would pull it up to listen.  She learned all the words.  I wanted her to understand the song’s over all meaning:  No matter how hard the circumstances of your life, you were created by God’s plan and heart from the beginning; He loves you and has a perfect path for you to travel- a spot for you to fill.

When I look at the starts at night, I think of it still- “Child, you’re like a star, set apart, set apart from the start of the world. This is your time, rise and shine; Rise and shine child, you’re one of a kind.”

In Psalm 147 I read that God counts the stars and calls them each by name.  It’s not just a matter of him knowing how many they are.  I’m a counter.  I number things, I count them and search for the misplaced items.  But this has an endearing quality.  He made them and he loves them.  In Isaiah 40 I see that He calls their name as they appear and by His strength and power not one of them is missing.

We were created to shine.  I can’t explain why life cuts and bruises us.  I can’t explain how mankind can be so cruel to those who are vulnerable or even helpless.  We live in a fallen world and it works hard to be sure we remain beaten down and subject to its darkness.  Yet God calls us by a name He gave to shine individually. Unthinkable things happen but unfathomable grace exists.

We are referred to as stars in His crown.  He loves each and has fashioned a place for it to take on individual brilliance.  And he will dig us out of the dirt and clean us off for his glory and purpose.  The world may have soiled my garments, my own choices may have joined the tearing and bruising, but God has great power and mighty strength and he knows where I am and still has a spot carved for me.

A line from a song Rich Mullins wrote has been stirred in my brain of late.  “Sometimes I think of Abraham, how one star he saw had been lit for me.”  Abraham was promised that his descendants would outnumber the stars.  Through the obedience of Christ to death and God’s power to draw him back out of the ‘dirt’ of death, we, by faith through grace are part of Abraham’s heritage according to both Hebrews and Romans.

The ability to shine is not my own.  It is in the heart of the Father from eternity past.  I must choose it and yet I am chosen and the work is His –one of a kind.

“Sometimes everything’s too much like the deepest cut it hurts to be touched.  When you hear, it when you feel it, don’t let it have its way.  What I’m trying to say is there’s no one like you to take the place of you; oh can’t you see you’re one of a kind?  Child, you’re like a star: set apart from the start of the world.” (The Letter; Newsboys)

“Those who are wise  will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” (Daniel 12:3) 

The world has its stars, but tomorrow they fade and others will replace them.  God has His stars and He knows them by name and calls them forth and they shine forever in their spot by His power and might.  I have tried to shine in my own power.  It’s exhausting.  I’ve tried to carve out a spot for myself with effort and ingenuity. It’s never quite what I imagine and it’s short lived, requiring more and more until I am spent and frustrated.  Yet God knows me and has prepared a place for me to shine by His power and might.  One of a kind.