Made for a Purpose
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10
A few summers ago I lived with two other counselors who taught Ceramics. I would go watch them as they were working on the wheel, and while I was there, I decided that if I ever taught a different class, it would be Ceramics.
They were so incredible at taking a lump of shapeless, drab clay and turning it into something beautiful. Even just being in the ceramics room and looking at every different creation is so cool. I’ve never ever seen two Ceramics creations that are identical. Every single one carries the mark of the person who created it.
When God says he is the potter and we are the clay in Isaiah 64:8, I think he does so intentionally. Every single one of us is different, but every single one of us carries the mark of our Creator.
Y’all have probably heard people say this before. We’re all unique and special, and none of us were created to be the same as anyone else. It’s so true, and if we focus on trying to be like other people, we’re totally missing the picture. We’re totally missing who God created us to be. This pretty obviously relates to how we see ourselves, right? Comparison is so dangerous because it distances us from the people who God created us to be.
Ephesians 2:10 takes the idea of our uniqueness even further. We are God’s handiwork - that means that God made us and loves us. We were created in Christ Jesus - we were made new in Christ, to do works that God prepared in advance for us to do. That’s kind of amazing, when you think about it.
There are things that God made for you to do, things that only you can do. I’m so quick to say, “Yeah, I guess I could do that, but so could a lot of other people.” The thing is though, God gave us unique abilities and talents and passions. He gave us a set of unique circumstances.
I think the simplest way of saying all of this is that God has a purpose for you. He made you the way you are and He has stuff that you - and only you - are supposed to do. Because He made you, because He prepared works in advance for you to do, God gets you. He gets you more than any other human being can. He gets you even more than you yourself can.
Great news, friends. We don’t have to wait and worry that there’s nothing for us to do, that only the people who have their lives perfectly together get to do all of the cool stuff. Because God made us, we are confident that He gets us perfectly and that He has set out jobs in advance that only we can do.