Confidence In Christ: A Devotional For Teen Girls

God's Creativity

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." - Ephesians 2:10 

I'll be honest—people have always fascinated me. Some people like to observe trees or mountains or animals, but personally, I enjoy observing people. I find it incredibly interesting to observe differences among people. The ways that different people think, feel, and interact among others. Perhaps it has something to do with being an author. Being that I tend to see life as a story, it seems only natural that I would see people as an interesting cast of characters. 

Naturally, on the surface, there are the obvious things that we notice.

Baker. Activist. Stay at home mom. Career woman. Firefighter. Actor.

The list goes on and on. Nonetheless, I try to look deeper than labels. Why is that person the way they are? What life experiences has shaped that person's political, religious, and life views? What are their deepest desires in life? What are their motives? I often find it incredibly hard to view people through the lens of black and white, because I believe that people usually have experiences and dreams that have helped shape who they are.

Furthermore, I don't just look at outside experiences that shape people. I believe that a lot of who a person is at their core is the fingerprint of God. God's stamp of approval, saying "This is my unique child, whom there is no one like."

Perhaps a person is deeply moved by the underprivileged.

An expression of God's compassion.

Maybe a person is drawn to ensuring equality

An expression of God's justice.

Maybe a person is into the arts, loving things like painting and music

An expression of God's creativity.

As a society, we sometimes have a hard time understand and relating with those who are different than us. Instead of embracing each others differences, we view people negatively for being different. 

What if we didn't turn a nose down on people who are different, but instead embraced those differences? 

What if we saw those differences as a form of beauty, rather than a threat? 

I believe that if we appreciated, learned from, and tried to understand people who are different than us, we'd be a much kinder and more Christ-like society. 

God created mankind in His image, and though we're all fallen, I believe that we still bear the unique fingerprints of our Creator.

I personally am grateful that God decided to make each of us so unique, and create a diverse group of humans. Imagine how boring the world would be if we were all the same! Not to mention that we wouldn't function that well as a society. If everyone had my personality, we'd have a whole lot of people who wrote novels and observed people, but things like scientific discovery and mathematics would suffer greatly. 

Nonetheless, because of all of you out their with your unique and special personalities and concerns, our society is able to function in a way that we can flourish in multiple areas of life. 

I encourage you to take a fresh look at the unique and awesome people all around you and appreciate the masterpiece of God's creation.

In the words of the popular Christian singer Britt Nicole, "You're worth more than gold!" 

Discussion Question - What fascinates you most about God's creation? How does this make you greater appreciate God's amazing power in our own lives?