God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God Himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
1 Peter 4:10-11
It all started years ago when my friend’s cat had kittens. I wanted one. Of course I did—I have never met a kitten I haven’t wanted. Mom was holding out, not agreeing to getting one of the kittens as we already had two until my friend brought the last homeless kitten over to our house. My mother took one look at that cute little face and caved. We named her Girtie and agreed that she would be my kitty; the one I would take after I moved out and got a place of my own.
Fast forward five years. I was newly married, settled into our first apartment, and ready to bring Girtie to my house. I called mom to tell her that I would be picking Girtie up that weekend and mom was “less” than excited. She protested that she loved Girtie—I reminded her that she could come visit Girtie who was, after all, always supposed to be my kitty. Mom relented and I brought Girtie to her new home.
Being a five year old cat at this point, Girtie was a little slow to adjust; she meowed constantly and stayed mostly to herself the first few days, not venturing out and exploring her new home much. I made the mistake of telling my mother this and mom insisted that Girtie was not happy and should be brought back home to her house. I told her I thought Girtie was slowly adjusting but it did seem like mom wasn’t happy . . . should I take Girtie back? My question was answered when I saw pictures of some kittens that her friend had—they were 6 weeks old and in need of a home.
Girtie was returned and my husband and I went to pick out our new cat. There was just one problem—how were we supposed to pick just one?!? There was this adorable and sweet kitty with a miniature lightning bolt on his little nose, but then there was this really pretty light gray kitty with white marking on her face and a fiery little personality. We picked the one with the lightning bolt on his nose. We made it to the car. Then we stopped—was this the right decision? I kept remembering the delicate markings on the sweet face of the little light gray kitty. We turned around and told the owner we wanted her too! Thus, Jester and Trixie came home to live with us.
I think of that now and I don’t know how we ever made it to the car the first time without our little Trixie. She has such a big personality and has established herself as queen over the other furry residents in our house—namely her brother, Jester, and our dog, Rosie. Trixie keeps everyone in check. She makes us laugh and brings so much joy to our lives. Even though in the grand scheme of things Trixie may be just a cat (don’t tell her that!) I cannot imagine only having one kitty. Can you relate?
How marvelous is it that the God of the universe thought the same thing about us! The world was ticking right along with how many billions of people on it and yet God thought that the world wasn’t complete. So He created you too! He could have shrugged it off, thought about how many other millions of little babies He had breathed life into just that day and let it go—but He didn’t. He thought about how the lives of the people you love would be that much poorer, that much grayer, without the joy that you unwittingly bring just by being you!
It’s easy to think we don’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things. Easy to think of the times when we’ve needed help from others, easy to think that we are such an inconvenience at times to others. When it seems like everything is going wrong it is easy to ask what our significance even is here on this earth.
We won’t know always know. When it comes right down to it we are just billions of insignificant people doing this significant thing called life. We can never know all the ways in which we affect and touch other’s lives, but what we do know is God created us for a reason, and the world just wouldn’t be the same without you or me.
Who were you put here to bless? What mission on this earth were you specifically designed for? What spiritual gifts has He blessed you with; don’t say none! Who cannot imagine their life without you? Think of them. Then think of others that mean the world to you. Thank God for them every day, and then go see how you can be a blessing to those closest to you today.