Quirky

Something wonderful happened to me recently and I wanted to share it with you. Not because it’s about me (although it is!); but because it’s about each one of us in a thousand specific and particular ways. Today, God has really spoken to me because of it, and I wonder if He might want to speak to you too. So, here goes.

In the middle of a busy multi-tasking day, I had a small conversation that was so enormous to my heart because it was an affirmation of my very self. It involved a lovely person who lingered to talk and who said a few words which made me feel valuable and significant and precious in amongst the whole variety of human beings that God has created on this earth. This was a lovely person who took the time to share something of her life’s journey which had one thread, many months ago, that was woven into my life’s journey.

As she spoke, I could feel God’s Spirit feeding my tender, often shy, human spirit. It felt as if the Lord was pouring the balm of His love and grace and affirmation deep into that hidden place in my heart where I’m most truly myself and, significantly, most truly His. It was such a precious gift to my sense of who I am, and I basked in the light of God’s love.

The particular circumstances were, I guess, unique to me. But I do think there’s something here for each of us, kids of the King. A long while ago this lovely lady and I had had a brief encounter when, as part of a small group who were explicitly speaking out loud the things we were grateful to God for, and I’d apparently thanked Him for making me quirky.

I don’t remember the situation at all, but I recognise that that’s exactly the kind of thing I would say. I know I am quirky, and I know that some of the elements of that are who God made me: a particular dress sense, the things I like and don’t like, a way of talking, a bit out of sync with the world around me … Yep! Quirky. And I do thank God for making me me!

But, for this lovely lady, it was revolutionary. God had used that one comment to release her into the freedom of being herself. Isn’t that wonderful? Thank You, Lord. And thank You that she took the time to tell me. Then, for me, the gift of this deeply affirming moment went, like a ripple on a pond, outwards even further. As I shared the joy of it, someone else, really precious, who’d felt themself to be “too quirky for God” also heard His whisper: “You are mine. I made you, and I don’t make mistakes.” Hooray and hooray!

We’re all so different, we human beings. And that’s not accidental. It’s because God made us different. As we each draw closer to Him, I do believe that He wants us to be more and more who He made us and to increasingly flourish as the people He knows we are.