THE MORAL OF THE STORY:

“So promise me you’ll never forget that you aren’t an accident or an incident … you are a gift to the world, a divine work of art, signed by God. You were knit together. You weren’t mass-produced. You aren’t an assembly-line product. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on this Earth by the Master Crafts-Man …. “

Max Lucado

“Why is it that whenever I go out to social situations or meet somebody for the first time, that I always compare myself to them, and I don’t mean that I just notice the differences in what we wear. I mean that within moments, I always feel inadequate, like I’m ‘less-than’, that I don’t matter,” a friend said. “I feel like I’ll never be good enough, I guess it’s one more thing I don’t like about myself. I’m sorry to be so negative Cindy, I should just get over myself.”

Tears welled into my friend’s eyes as she spoke, and I couldn’t help but do the same. I hugged her and said: “I just wish you could realize deep at your core that you are a wonderful treasure, you are a precious one-of-a kind miracle, you are beautiful inside and out. I love you, and God loves you, and so many others do, too. God planned and knows everything about you, He knows the number of hairs on your head and He knows how many tears you have cried.”

My friend’s eyes lightened a little at that and she reminded me of a thirsty plant that is finally receiving some much-needed water. I went on to share with her some creative descriptions of God’s love, such as, ‘If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it and if He had a wallet, you can be sure that your picture would be in it.’ I also told her about a Bible verse which says that God knit her together in her mother’s womb, and that God thinks that she is wonderfully made.

She stood up straighter, dried her eyes, sighed and said: “That all sounds so good to me Cindy, but it sounds like you are talking about somebody else.” We talked some more and I explained that whenever we compare ourselves to somebody else, we will always come up short, because we compare our insides to their outsides. We know the struggles and problems that we are having, and then we look at other people, and focus on how put-together they appear to be, but we don’t really know what is going on in their lives. We’ll never win at that game.

I told her that once I told another friend that God had knit her together, and she interrupted me and said, “Well honey, I think He must have dropped a few stitches along the way.” My friend laughed, and I told her what a great laugh and beautiful smile she had. I also told her that many people feel the way she does; in fact, I had a similar conversation with another friend a few days ago, but that God longs to change that, and He wants people to realize just how much He loves and cherishes each one of them.

Imagine how differently we would all feel if we truly understood that each of us is a special gift, lovingly designed by the best gift-giver this world has ever known.

And you can quote me on that.