Who are you?

 A number of years ago I was having a conversation with a friend.  I don’t remember everything that was said but I remember how passionately he spoke about Genesis 1:27. He found it so profound that we have been created in the image and likeness of the God of the Universe and that if we were to grasp the awesomeness of that, how much our sense of self and self-worth will be affected. Not his exact words but the essence of the discussion. It is a discussion that would stay with me up to today and even for the rest of my life.

Coincidentally or maybe not a coincidence at all, years later I would be reading the book, Understanding your potential written by the late Dr. Myles Munroe, in which he included an entire chapter titled “Who are you”. In the chapter he writes, “Can you see what is in you? Do you know your potential? Do you know that you are not just someone born in a ghetto over the hill? There is a wealth of potential in you”. He goes on to deliver an exposition on Genesis 1:26-27.  He wrote, “When God wanted fish, He spoke to the water. When He wanted animals He spoke to the dirt. When God created human beings He spoke to Himself…God created you by speaking to Himself. You came out of God…” Further along in the chapter he advises to stop believing the negative things that others say about us, and I want to add, stop believing the negative things that we say to ourselves. Dr. Munroe also advises, “If you want to know who you are, you should look at God…You are who God says you are”.

It is my firm conviction that many of the social dysfunctions we experience today can be linked to poor self-worth. It would benefit us greatly if we were to go back to the source, our Creator and fully grasp who we are in Him and for what purpose we were created. Think about the great benefit of such knowledge. The benefits to ourselves, our children and our society. In sharing this idea with a group of young girls recently I also shared the following two scripture verses:

“Before I made you in your mother’s womb I knew you. Before you were born I chose you for a special work”. Jeremiah 1:5 (ERV)

“You made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous – how well I know it”.  Psalm 139:13-14 (NLT)

What I did not mention earlier is that after having that conversation with my friend I wrote a poem encapsulating our discussion on the Genesis 1:27 and its impact. I must warn you there is one line in the poem that may appear to not represent Standard English. You may think it to be bad English, it is not. I purposely meant to use Trinidadian vernacular, in that instance.

Be blessed child of God and be confident in who you are!

Leona

Who are You?

by

Leona Carla Isaac

Then God said, Let us make man in our own image, Gen 1:26

These eight words spoken by our Creator,

Yes!  Spoken by our Creator!

They exploded with great power,

Words filled with power and destiny.

Here’s the response,

So God created man in his own image…male and female he created them, verse 27.

Evolved from a monkey they say,

But I say, no way!!

You see Gen 2:7 tells me that the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became:

A living being.

So that is the origination of me,

Of me, of you, of all ah we!

His eyes saw my unformed body, He knitted me in the womb of my mother,

He ordained my days even before one of them came to be.

Yes! Even before I was formed, He knew me, He called me, before the foundation of the world, He chose me!

Before the foundation of the world, He chose you!

So! Who are you? Whose are you?

Self-doubt, self-hate, lack of self:

Worth, self-esteem,

Can’t understand self, struggling with self,

Argggh! Fighting with self.

To understand self, to improve self,

To understand who we are, we must first understand; whose we are.

You are a child of the King, You are Royalty,

Loved with an everlasting love,

Preconceived, preordained, predestined, His masterpiece,

You are the designer’s original! No carbon copy!

Created in the image of the Creator, to reflect His character

That is, who you are.