Give Purpose
“We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28.
When I was around 7 or 8 years old, I had friends who lived next door and they would come over and play. I remember we would make my backyard our make believe kitchen. We would dig up some dirt, put a little water in it so we could mold it into any pretend food we wanted. Of course, we didn’t eat our “meal”, but we found joy in what we had created. Toys or technology weren’t required to entertain us. Only creativity and company were necessary.
In Genesis, God formed man from the dust of the ground, breathed life, and man became a living being (Genesis 2:7). Then God gave man purpose: to cultivate and care for the garden. He also allowed man to take part in creation of the woman. After God’s beautiful intent for us, the disobedience of man led to the consequence of suffering. “In toil you shall eat its yield all the days of your life…by the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread” (Genesis 3:17-19).
Knowing God, He is intentional about everything from the universe to the smallest microorganisms. God still had a plan even after the fall of man and that plan was to offer His only Son to take on human flesh and be sacrificed for the redemption of human suffering.
In my life, there were many times when I did not see or understand what God had planned for me. Within the last few years, I have experienced difficult things which cause me to ask, what is my purpose? My husband and I had dreams of expanding our family, but 4 years later, we are still waiting for that dream to come to fruition. So the question arises every so often, what does God want of me as I wait? There must be something God is teaching me about Him, about myself and my relationship with Him.
As I recall the childhood memory of creating something out of dirt and it brought me joy, I remembered that God created the earth and said “it is good”. God created us out of the dirt. As God’s children, we were called to do what He did, take the dirt and give it purpose. The dirt can represent many things. It could represent the waiting, the loss or the break down of something. What does the dirt represent for you? Whatever it is, we always have a choice. Difficult things will always come our way. What we do with it can be transformative. Do we allow the challenges to keep us bitter or make us better?
It is okay to grieve and take time to process pain because it makes us human, but I have learned that I do not have to dwell in it or be buried by it. I can create new life within it. How do we transform our dirt? By asking, “Father, help me to make something beautiful out of this. Amen.”
