The Special One

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          I know I am a touch weird. I have always been. When my husband and I were dating, there was one year we were in separate states and in one of his letters to me he was listing things he liked about me and one of them was that I was weird. So I guess I should embrace my weirdness and go with it. One thing that I think is weird is that when I watch movies- not even just Christian ones I often find some kind of spiritual take away that I am sure they did not intend when they filmed the movie.
          For instance we just watched the Lego Movie. In the movie (spoiler alert), the main character gets told he is THE special one. Then later in the movie, he gets told everybody is special if they believe they are. It actually made me think of something I have been thinking about from the Bible lately and that is how Jesus made people feel like they were special. When you read the book of John, the author refers to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. It almost makes it sound like he was more special or more loved than the other disciples.
          Jesus may have “clicked” with John’s personality more, but I am not so sure that Jesus loved him so much more than he did the other disciples. In Luke 9, we see all the disciples fighting over which of them were the greatest, which makes me think that they all thought they were the most special to him. I think Jesus just has that effect on people.
          I have two children and they are always trying to get me to say that they are each my favorite. I love them both so much and they are so different from each other and there are of course different things about them that are wonderfully unique, but they are both my favorite. I think it would be wonderful though if they both grow up feeling like they are so special to me that they must be my favorite.
          I can’t help but think that God is like that with us. He would love for us all to feel so loved and special to him that we feel like we are His favorite. God did make us each special and unique. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” God created you as a masterpiece. You were not a mistake, you were not a surprise, and you were created to be unique with your own gifts and your own talents.
          I don’t know about you, but I have had many times in my life where I haven’t felt special. I have even had times where I didn’t know if I was even special to God. I always hated when people asked what my talent was. I had so many talents I wanted- I have always wanted to sing, play guitar, be graceful, be a great artist- but I never could figure out what my talent was. I thought because I couldn’t list my talent I must not be special to people. I also thought any mistakes I made would make God mad at me and so I thought because I was a flawed person I couldn’t be special to God.
          Now I have learned that I am special to God because He made me who I am. He made me unique and special and with my own special gift set. The funny thing is it was not until I was willing to spend time reading God’s word, praying, and spending quality time with Him that I could accept that I was special to Him. It is like the little guy in the Lego Movie- he was special the whole time, but not because he was THE special one, but he was special because he was someone. You are special because God made you. You may not feel special, people may not treat you special or even good, but God sees you as a masterpiece. He knows who you are inside and out and loves the you He made. He may not always love all the decisions you make, and the decisions you make may have negative consequences, but you are special to God. Just like both of my kids are my favorite children you are one of God’s favorite children. This week I challenge you to start looking at yourself as the special one that God loves. You are special.

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