People Shaped Spaces

I am a huge fan of Birthdays, not necessarily my own, but I love the idea of celebrating the uniqueness of an individual, the fact that though they personally had little to do directly with their birth, that the fact that they were born, is actually a truly remarkable thing. Of all the spiritual/theological concepts that are hard to swallow, I think many would claim that creation or the age old question of “How did we get here?” is a big one, if not one of the biggest. While I am fully aware the wide disparity of opinions on the origins of life, I would ask that for a moment, regardless of where you stand on the topic that you could briefly consider the implications of being created. I am not asking for anyone to abandon a scientific viewpoint on the topic, for I feel that there are many scholars who have breached the topic at length and far greater depth than I would ever, however, if we could for only a moment consider the deeper implications of life, and life created with purpose, or life as a part of a design and our part in it, we might take a new and refreshed viewpoint on what it is that we’re all really doing here on earth.

Back to birthdays…one of the things that I’ve become increasingly aware of over the years is how amazing the mosaic of situations, locations, relationships, and circumstances of our lives truly are. If we were even remotely able to understand even a portion of the expanses of creation I think we’d all be utterly dumbfounded, and I do not mean creation in a natural or elemental standpoint, I mean creation personally and relationally.

To think that prior to the creation of time and place, there was a purpose, a plan. In the plan, everything was crafted out, every detail, every moment. Like a puzzle, it was all placed together perfectly, each little piece contributing to the larger whole. In that puzzle, in the plan, was us, people…individuals who from the beginning, and even before the beginning, were a part of the bigger story.

When the foundations of time were laid, regardless of what you believe about yourself and your circumstances, the Lord above thought it best that YOU, and only YOU, an individual, be placed into the puzzle, exactly as you are, exactly where you are. There was a YOU shaped vacancy that needed to be filled, distinctly and uniquely by YOU.

There were relationships that from the beginning needed a YOU. There were people who distinctly needed a smile that would only work if it came from YOU. There were jokes that needed YOUR laugh. There were tough moments that needed YOUR tears. There were friends that would need YOUR shoulder to cry on, and only YOUR shoulder that would do. There were children that needed YOU as parents; there were parents that needed YOU as children. There were bosses and jobs, which needed YOU as an employee. There were songs that needed YOU to sing them. There were sunrises, and sunsets, that needed to be savored by YOU, and YOU alone. There were congregations and communities that had YOU shaped spaces that needed to be filled by YOU.

Friends, the uniqueness and purposefulness of US as people is something that we must not overlook. While the world would have us believe that we as individuals are nothing special, God above couldn’t feel more differently, and to think that we’re not special, and that the people around us are not of equal and dire importance is an insult and a tragedy. Both the trivial and extraordinary moments of our lives, were distinctly made for us, and us for them. To ignore the gravity of US, is to disregard the gravity of our creator, our design, our purpose…

Now there is one other important thing to remember, and that is that our uniqueness, our individuality is a part of that great mosaic. When the pieces come together they create a picture of God’s great love, his sovereign divinity, is perfect plan…his grace, his creation, his redemption, and his invitation to be a part of it all. It is us in the context of him, and not the other way around. If we take the fundamental concept of self, and strip it of the context of the greater significance of the plan to which we were placed in, we become hedonists, egotists, self-worshiping, self-indulging hopeless swine. When we extract ourselves from the greater picture, we cheapen life…though some would have us believe the opposite.

From the beginning, there was a YOU shaped space that needed filling…and it needed to be filled as a part of a plan for the ultimate glory of God. After all, happiness and enjoyment are not real until they are shared. The creator has carefully kept this in mind, as he wanted to share his mosaic, his purpose with YOU. The spaces we fill are an invitation to get in on the action, to enjoy God, his purpose, his plan, his beautiful creation work. Of course many of our daily spaces are far from sexy, but they are our spaces none the less, and they need filling, so whether we’re gas station attendants in Sandusky, OH, or Presidents in Washington, DC…there is work to be done filling the spaces of our lives.

Filling my Space,
CP
http://Chrispanoff.blogspot.com