He is Sufficient for Me

Why DID the turkey cross the road?

To get to the other side. At least that's what it looked like when one scurried across our street as I drove by. I have to say, they don't look anything like I had pictured. I thought those cocky little feathers were up all the time. They're not. Only for certain occasions. Most of the time, those birds just look odd.

I've been reading Donald Miller's Searching for God Knows What. It's a book I started before Christmas and re-started again during my lunch breaks. He's a great writer because he's a pretty insightful guy, and he writes as if he's sitting with you at a coffee shop, just chattin' it up. West Coast style. Nobody does that here.

There's a chapter in the book called Naked. I can't begin to do justice to what DM does with his writing about theology, but I'm gonna go for it anyways. But anyway, back to Naked. He writes about Adam before Eve, and how Adam had to wait about a hundred years before God was going to provide a helpmate. A hundred years! In fact, God didn't give Adam a time frame, He just said, "name all (ALL!) the animals, and then we can talk helpmate."

Can you imagine?

Adam couldn't. He didn't know who or what to expect. Remember that book, "Are You My Mommy?" I wonder if Adam wandered around naming each animal and then asking, "Are you my helpmate?"

Once Adam woke up from his slumber and found a beautiful companion, someone he waited for, longed for and someone made of his bone and flesh, in God's image, The New Living Translation says he said, "At last" in exclamation.

Miller notes Moses' emphasis on how they were naked, and unashamed, all before the fall. I could be getting this all wrong, but I think the point Miller, and before him, Moses was trying to make was that, the fall of man had less to do with what we think of it as lies, deceit and "not doing what you're told," and more to do with when they suddenly looked at themselves, naked, made in God's image, and felt ashamed. They were the only humans on Earth and they ran and hid in embarrassment. They ran away from God, separating themselves from Him.

How sad God must have been when they ran from Him and He was left with nothing more to say than, "Who told you you were naked?"

I often look at friends and family and wonder why they live their lives in such a way that suggests they under-estimate their own value. Then I have to look at myself and count how many times per hour I have completely diminished my own self-worth.

I've left little room for much else except for my Creator to say, "Who told you you weren't good enough? And further, who told you I wasn't good enough?"

Right now, I'm exhausted, discouraged, a little grumpy and my heart is bursting with the knowledge that I am so very loved. Circumstances haven't changed, but I am reminded that while they don't change, Jesus is there, walking beside me, and holding me the whole way through.