You really don't know me until you've seen me work with kids. You haven't seen me in my element. If you haven't seen me motivate a cabin of shy girls to dance to an obnoxious camp worship song, you don't fully know me. If you haven't seen my face when I talk about being an RA and the beyond amazing freshman girls in my hall, you don't fully know me. If you haven't seen me kayak down a river on a hot summer day or hike all day at devils lake, you don't fully know me. Some people assume I'm one thing. I've been told so many times in my life that I am shy. I have also been told time and time again that I am the loudest person someone has ever met. I have been perceived in many different ways, and to be honest, it sucks. It sucks to be analyzed and judged. It sucks to feel like no one actually knows who I am. It sucks to be put into a box. It all makes me feel small and unseen.
God did not create me as a copy. He did not mass produce me. My Father does not think of me as an extrovert. He doesn't label me as quiet. My God looks at me, and He sees me. Thinking that my God thought of every part of me and created me exactly the way I am gives me life. Realizing that God created me with purpose gives me hope. Knowing that nothing is going to stop the plans He made and nothing is going to take His love away gives me unshakable trust. His truths give me the peace that I will not stumble and fall. I will not be overcome by my weaknesses. His strength will become power within me. My Heavenly Father will never leave me. He will never overlook me. He will never allow me to just be one small thing. He sees everything in me, and every ounce of potential that I posses.
My God is the Great Developer. The potential He sees in me and wants to give to me is stronger than any mentor could ever see or give. He does not see me as an option or a second choice, He knows that I am His. He knows that He has instilled more in me than what people see from the outside. He is the Great Knower of my soul. He understands my intentions and my passions and my dreams. He can hear my deepest thoughts and understand the reasons I am the way I am, and this intimate, personal relationship with Him is all He has ever wanted. He knows me, and He knows that the more I seek to know Him, the more full and satisfying my life will be.
A relationship with Christ is not a surface level friendship. You are never unknown by Him. He sees it all, and He loves it all. If we understood how much He knows us and unconditionally loves us, we would seek to know Him more every day of our lives. We would realize that we do not live in the boxes people put us in, we live in God's hands. We would realize that our purpose matters. We do not have to sit and be analyzed by clay: we can sit and be molded by the potter. We can be still in the truth that we are His sons and daughters. We can know that we are His, and We can believe that He knows the plan and the purpose and He will be with us through it all.
