Who Does God Say I Am?
Our lives are full of experiences that cause us to question our identity. When we fail, when we don’t meet expectations or when we face a challenge to our values and core beliefs, we may feel shaken and lost. Thankfully, God supplies us with many reminders about the truth of who we are, woven throughout scripture. Join the blog team writers in discovering more of who God says you are.
Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)
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.
It was at the end of a week-long camping trip last summer that I discovered something quite wonderful. We had been staying in Central Oregon for almost a week, and it was on the way home that we decided to stop at Sparks Lake. The crisp pine forest was a pleasant place to be, so I decided to go out on my own for a little while and spend some time birding on a nearby trail. Large rock crevices were strewn on both sides of the path, revealing tiny cave-like structures and small crevices reaching into the earth beneath my feet. Being late spring, some patches of snow were still present from the winter before.
At first, the avian life was a little less than I had been hoping for, but it was still nice to get to wander as far as I wished, just endlessly following a trail into new territory. In the middle of this time, a pair of hikers came around a bend where the path thinned. I pulled off to the side to give them space to pass me. After they passed, I decided to take a minute to look and listen for some birds. I was standing on this path when I heard a light tapping sound.
Thud, thud, thud, thud -pause- thud, thud, thud, thud
It was faint, so faint it could have been the wind making the trees creak, or a cricket of sorts making a low chirping sound. But after scanning around the area, I found a medium-sized black bird that was hammering its bill into a long gray tree. This bird was a Black-backed Woodpecker, a species I had never before seen. During this trip, I had been freshly discovering what it meant to be still and observe as I explore the natural world, and I clearly saw this occurrence as the fruit from this practice. It was a gift from The Lord.
A couple months after this encounter in the woods, I took a class in Forest Ecology. In this class, I had been shown a whole new world in the forests that have surrounded me my whole life. But along with this fresh wave of new knowledge, I had a period of wrestling to discover what it means to be drawn into my desire to explore the woods and learn to grasp the depths of wonder in the simplicity and complexity of every rock, tree, and creature, while also, at the same time, interact with the God who created it all. I found myself occasionally wondering if I really should pursue such a career, asking myself if God wanted me to pursue forestry related work, and also wondering how he was interacting with me through that. At that time, I could not quite understand the role he had been playing, and the way he was already working with me.
As I considered these new thoughts, and considered the story I just told about the woodpecker, it was evident to me that The Lord’s love and care is present in the midst of my excitement towards nature. During this season, I have been learning that he himself put a passionate interest for nature into me when he knitted me together in my mother's womb, a truly wonderful thing to try to understand.
During this period of my heart's confusion, I remember one specific night when I heard God clearly speak into my ecological pursuit and desire. It was on this night when I decided to seek The Lord by reading a book about His character and nature (The Abba Journey book). I was deeply trying to seek some words from him and felt like I just had to know what he might be saying. Overall, I felt very confused, and sought to clearly hear his words over me. On one page of this book in particular, these specific words were laid before me, “God created us with the express desire that we would share with Him in caring for His creation.” (Abba Foundation, Chiqui Wood, 2018, page 47).
That moment changed my confused state of mind over the matter of God’s place in my studies. I began to see that he placed this desire for the woods in me, and deeply wants to join my journey as I move through the fields, watch the sparrows, and experience the Aspen groves. He is present when I collect the data for sixty-something different trees in the forest plots, and he is giving me creativity when I have to rewrite the entire Future Research section of my student project poster.
Ephesians 2:10 reads, “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.” It greatly pleases me that we have such a caring Father, that we have such a loving being, who implants dreams into our hearts and minds, and dearly wants to walk with us through it. I have constantly felt His hand grabbing my senses as I walk with him into these dreams. I feel so much more love knowing he is in support of who I am, the creation he made. I have found in my journey that when I feel down, or when I feel confused, when I feel lost in the mystery of who I am, I can always turn to a Father who has sewn the pieces of my being into this body. He planted these seeds in my heart and is never going to let me go. Isn’t it wondrous? So captivating? Something we can endlessly ponder? The wonder of creation, and the God who created it. The wonder that we were made in the image of our God of love. Our wondrous God of love.
About the Author
Zeke is a young high school/early college student fascinated by the dreams The Lord has placed in his heart. Some of these dreams have taken form in a love for the outdoors, numerous visual art forms, writing, music, and science. Loving to discover more about the creator of the universe, Zeke is always excited to keep exploring, talking, and walking with his Heavenly Father and those he interacts with.