The theme was the butterfly. Yes...feels a little 80's bathroom wallpaper, but the weekend quickly moved passed my pre-concieved notions and into my own life and heart in a deeply transforming way.
I learned that every caterpillar is created with imaginal disks. Imaginal disks hold information about who the caterpillar is intended to become. As it grows through the different stages of its life, the imaginal disks inside of the caterpillar lay a blueprint for their development and an image of who they were intended to be.
During a time of solitude during the weekend, we were given a page of scripture. Each verse on the page, a whisper of love God speaks over those He has created. Our assignment was to highlight a few verses that stood out in a meaningful way to us and once our time was up, we were to report back to our groups to share. Seems easy enough, right?
I looked down at the words on the page...things that were true of me as HIS child and I searched. Tears started to come, and I realized that before I could "put on" my identity in Christ, the Lord was giving me permission to "take off" who I was to everyone else in my world. I had to write them down...
I am...
...a chef for Cora with food allergies
...a speech therapist for Cole
...a teacher for Ryder
...a playmate for Rylee
...a daughter for my mother and father
...a grand-daughter for my grandparents
...a friend and prayer partner for my small group
...a director for our AWANA group at church
...a wife to John
...and finally that's where it stopped. There are many more hats I wear, but taking off the heaviest expectations gave me room to receive from the Lord my identity in HIM.
He spoke gently over me, words of love and grace, reminding me that like a caterpillar with imaginal disks guiding its transformation, I was born with His DNA. I was made for Him.
The roles I had to lay aside in that moment to hear from the Lord were not bad roles. They were and still are ones I treasure. They are a part of me, given by God and roles He empowers me to live out in His strength every day.
I love being a mother, a daughter, and grand-daughter, a friend, a leader and a wife. But most of all, if I don't wake up each morning with my soul outstretched to greet the One I was created for, then all the other hats come tumbling down.
I was made...for JESUS.
My heart was moved and spoken to in many ways over the days I retreated, but nothing as life-defining as the truth that I was made with the DNA of the King of Heaven knit into my very being.
I was made in the image of God, and if my deepest, most foundational purpose for living each day does not reach beneath the surface of my being to the very roots of that truth, I am living outside of the reason I was created...for God, by God.
It's in my DNA...my imaginal disks have the image of Christ.
To become like HIM is my highest aim and purpose for waking up each morning.
Oh, how I need to be reminded of my first love....maybe today, you do too. So give yourself permission to take off any role or expectation you feel defines you today, just long enough for your imaginal disk to remind you, that you were made for more than this...
You were made for a KING.
