You Are Unique and Special
by Liz Griffin
At the age of fifteen Wilson Bentley made a wonderful discovery. Under a microscope snowflakes were miracles of beauty. Each crystal was a masterpiece of design and no design was ever repeated. He then made a camera that would capture the beauty of the snow crystals before they melted. He cherished and treasured each image, and carefully preserved them, putting them in books and exhibitions to show to the world. Three years ago ten of his original photos, which hadn’t as yet been published in any book or magazine, were sold at an antiques show at £3,000 each.
God says you and I are miracles of beauty, His masterpieces of design; unique and unrepeatable human beings. Each one of us is special in God’s eyes. How sad that so may of us feel rejected by others and end up disliking ourselves and wishing we were like someone else!
David Ring was born handicapped and both his parents had died by the time he was fourteen. He thought that God had rejected him because he had cerebral palsy and he experienced cruel mockery at the new school he had to move to. He believed his mother had been the only person capable of loving him and he became very suicidal.
Three years later he chose to invite Jesus into his life and immediately realised that God accepted him just the way he was. He was then able to accept himself and start a new life. As a popular evangelist he often asks his audiences this question ‘How do we love ourselves?’ He then answers it by saying ‘We do it by seeing ourselves as God sees us. We’re very special in God’s eyes. When we love ourselves we can love others. We begin seeing the good in them. We stop finding fault with them.’
Like David Ring, when we come to our heavenly Father through Jesus, our Saviour, we find who we really are created to be and we enter into His plans for our life. ‘For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago’. We can leave behind the old grave clothes, the ashes on our head, the mourning, the grieving, and the spirit of despair. We can let the Lord place upon us the crown of beauty, the oil of joy, and the garment of praise. We can become oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendour (Isaiah 61: 2-3).
Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, please help me to see myself as You see me. Help me to enjoy being who You’ve created me to be and not want to be like someone else. Amen.
Liz Griffin lived for 20 years as an expatriate in South Africa, Bahrain and Japan, as her husband Paul worked for an international oil company. Paul and Liz became involved with Ellel Ministries in 1991 as part of the ministry team and joined the full-time team at Ellel Grange in 1995. Paul and Liz teach and minister to those seeking healing in their lives and together have written two books, 'Anger - How Do You Handle It' and 'Hope and Healing For The Abused'.
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