"God's Plan for Us"

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV).

I know today’s reading is specifically a prophecy and promise to Israel. But the promise also has a dual application to us as individuals and as nations today. Do you remember the story of the ugly duckling? A mother hen had six beautiful golden yellow chicks and one ugly gray one. The ugly one was picked on by all the other chicks, rejected, made fun of, and made to feel terrible because he was so different. You can imagine how he felt. Some time later when all the chicks were grown, along came a flock of beautiful swans. How the ugly duckling adored them and lo and behold, he looked into the water and saw his own reflection and came to the profound realization that he wasn't an ugly duckling but a beautiful swan! His life was forever changed.

Did you ever feel like you were an "ugly duckling" misfit? Many of us have. Many still do. I've known beautiful people who felt and believed they were ugly. All of us have suffered from some kind of rejection. We may have been told that we lack some talent or ability. It may be that you have been ridiculed for a disability of some kind. Regardless of the situation sometimes we come to believe the negative comments made toward us. When we allow others to define us as “ugly” and believe it, it can be devastating to our self-image and behavior and how well we do in life. When parents or peers repeatedly tell us we are ugly, clumsy, stupid or whatever, and we believe what they say and define ourselves that way, we tend to act accordingly because we always act consistently with what we believe deep down no matter what we may profess.

I know it is easier said than done, but there is only one way to truly define ourselves, and that is how God sees us. And when we see ourselves this way, our life can be forever changed too! Certainly God sees our woundedness, our brokenness, our sins, and our failures, but he separates our person from our actions and sees beyond these. He sees us as his creation and loves us with an everlasting love. He sees the person in us that he envisions us to be . . . our potential and what, with his help, we can become.

As Michelangelo said, "I saw the angel in the marble and chiseled until I set it free." That's how God sees you and me. He looks beyond the rugged exterior and sees the "angel" within each of us. As God said to the ancient Israelites, he also says to you and me: "For I know the plans I have for you . . . plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Turn to that plan today!