The Crab

This passed week, I went to the Bahamas for a mission trip. And although I could share SO much about that whole week, there is one thing that really stuck with me from that trip.

Throughout the week, I struggled spritually. (And it was a good struggle). I had begun learning how to love people in a new way. At home, I feel like I have to perform to get approval sometimes. I feel like my performance reflects how I love the people. But in the Bahamas, I began learning how to love people just by spending time with them, getting to know them, and just learning about who they are. I didn't have to perform, even though we did go to do home repair. It wasn't about repairing homes. This trip was about getting to build relationships with people that will last longer than a week. We got to know these people and be with them, and they changed our lives just by being who they were to us. And hopefully, God's love for them shone through us as well.

Also, I began to really recognize the beauty of God. I did a lot of video taping that week because I like taking videos instead of pictures, although pictures are awesome too. And behind the camera, I got to watch people and see who they were. I also got to know them while I wasn't video taping, but I liked experiences who they were all together. And as I got to know my team and the people there, I began to see how God makes people so different from each other. We all look differently, talk differently, have different personalities, likes, dislikes, etc. The list goes on and on. And I personally get so much joy from seeing so much diversity. And in this diversity, we all work together because if we were all the same, how would that work?

If we were all God's arms and no feet, how could we function? So I was watching at how each person had their function and who they were, and I began questioning myself. I began comparing myself to everyone, and seeing their beauty, I felt I had none. I felt like I had nothing interesting, nothing worth while about myself. And I struggled with this almost the whole week.

Then, on our last day, we were walking along the beach and I found a (dead) baby crab. I almost walked right by it, and almost kept going. But something about this crab just caught my attention. And I began thinking, God, why didn't I just walk passed this insignificant crab? There's nothing special here. It's small, dead, and I don't see anything worth while about it. And then a thought popped into my head, and I began thinking about how this tiny, insignificant crab was made by God. The creator of the universe. And that had more meaning, more significance than anything I had ever thought of.

I was that crab. I am tiny, insignificant, but I have been made by God. Even if there is no other talent, beauty, or anything else about me, my beauty comes from our Creator and I think that speaks volumes. And he has made me alive in his Son, and he loves me. I often have the attitude that I will never get married because there isn't really anything unique about myself, but I've realized something:

If God made me, created me, adopted me, calls me his child, then that is better than any other thing I will ever be able to think of. And I am growing so much more than I ever have, and I love God more and more each day, and if that isn't something extraordinary, then I don't know what is.
I am special because I am one of God's creations and I love him with all my heart.