Uniquely The Same

Have you ever listened to yourself? I mean have you ever paid attention to things you say repeatedly? So lately I've tried to be very aware of listening to myself...and for me quite often this is my favorite phrase- "I just don't understand." Recently, I found some poems my mom kept over the years that I wrote as a child. I was 8 years old writing words on a page about how life was such a mystery. First of all, what 8 year old is pondering life? Second of all, why didn't my parents get me checked out then, would've saved me years of bills in therapy! Or maybe it's just that we're all uniquely the same...

I chose the picture of this beautiful lantern because I love collecting these beautiful light shelters. I love the intricacies of the glass. I love the different shapes of them. I love the shadows and the colors they cast upon the room like adorning jewelry. Depending on how the glass is cut, depending on the color, depending on the opaqueness of the lantern, a different design will appear on it's canvas.

Friends, this may be a stretch, but I see us much like these beautiful lanterns. As you've heard me say repeatedly, we are all made in our original designs. We all have these beautiful God given shapes, these wonderful colors to our spirits, this amazing ability to shine brilliantly. More importantly, none of us are given the same structure, the same colors, the same shells. We have all been inserted into this ginormous story in God's book. Have you ever thought about that? I love how my great shepherd, Pastor Scott Heare says it--If the bible begins with Genesis and ends with Revelation and that is when Jesus returns but that hasn't happened yet, then aren't we all part of the story? Love that.

So, if we're all different and we all have different reasons for our brilliance, then why do I need to understand others? Why can't I just accept that not everyone views life through my lens? Maybe I have the narrow-minded scope and as opposed to those that I "don't understand"? Perhaps my understanding could be broadened by asking questions so that I can seek to know what it is I don't understand. We all create the light that we allow to be shown based on our experience of how our light has been received in the past. For some of us, our lanterns have mega watt bulbs in them. We've never known what it is to not be received well. We know who we are. For some of us, we don't want anyone to see our light at all, we keep it purposely turned down to dim for fear we'll be noticed. Not sure how we'll be received. We blend in with the other lanterns so as not to draw attention. We do our best just to turn on at all.

It may be this woman's crazy imagination and believe me friend's it runs as wild as my mustang spirit. But, I believe the more we get to know ourselves and the more freedom we find in that, the more we're willing to allow our light to be seen and the more color we get in our lantern. I think our glass suddenly begins to turn clearer instead of opaque just as our views of ourselves become more understood. So, who am I to not understand, instead I should be willing to just appreciate the light that's being given or maybe offer to share my light with theirs to make things just a little brighter.