A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
Recently I enjoyed talking with a group of junior-high girls. In a note of thanks from the group, Jennifer signed herself, “I’m the Unique One.”
(Remember your English teacher’s warning? There’s no such thing as being “very unique.” If you’re unique, you are “the only one, unequaled, distinctively characteristic.”)
Jennifer says she’s unique, and I am enchanted. How I wish everybody in the world knew that they were also unique in God’s creation. I would say to them, “You are unique, not just one of a group of God’s preferred people, but really and truly unique, different from everybody else. There is something different, special, in your personality that God delights in knowing. He has a very special plan for your life. He created you to be happy and fulfilled, fitted to accomplish His very personal goals for you, when you’ve trusted Jesus to be your Savior. Psalm 139:1-6 says,
O LORD, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my every thought when far away.
You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest.
Every moment you know where I am.
You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD.
You both precede and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to know!
Jennifer got it right. She is unique: but so are you. God said so. What a profound difference knowing this should make in your life. God knows all about you. He loves you so very much that He surrounds you with His “hand of blessing.” Every thing that happens to you matters to Him.
The headlines of our local newspaper recently front-paged a young college student’s complaint: “I got tired of feeling I didn’t belong.” Could it have been that he was unwilling to follow God’s perfect plan for his life? Did he need a personal encounter with God, a surrender to His authority, a yielding of his “right” to go his own way? If so, no wonder he felt like he didn’t belong. Psalm 139:13-18 continues:
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous–and how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable!
I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me!
Might you sometimes feel you “don’t belong”? What a comfort to remember that God made you unique, on purpose! When you accept His will, His plan for your life, then you need never again feel you don’t belong. You can have the precious assurance that you belong to the Holy God, your Creator, who engraved your name on His hand. He designed you specifically to enjoy Him forever. That’s why Jesus died, to give you that joy.