| Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are Christ’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which He prepared in advance for us to do.” |
A miracle is defined as a highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences. Did you know that the odds of you being born as YOU are pretty much zero? I recently read an article that laid out all the probabilities of you being born as you and thought my mind would explode. Here are a few of the statistics:
- The odds of your parents meeting each other are 1 in 20,000.
- The odds of your parents staying together long enough to have kids are 1 in 2,000.
- On average a woman is born with 100,000 eggs. A man is born with some 12 trillion sperm.
- The odds of the right sperm meeting the right egg: 1 in 400 QUADRILLION.
Now if that number isn’t hard enough to grasp, can you picture this? 10 million semi-trucks full of sand. The odds of YOU are represented by 1 teeny, tiny grain of sand out of all the sand in those trucks! In 18 generations, there are over 1 million people involved in your unique creation of DNA. Think of all the stories, heartbreaks, deaths, illnesses, laughs, and adventures that all played pivotal roles in your existence. Not only are YOU a miracle, but you are a contributor to someone else’s. You are rare and valuable.
While I was digesting this article, the scripture Ephesians 2:10 kept coming to my mind. The scripture says this, “For we are Christ’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works, which he prepared in advance for us to do.” Another translation uses the word masterpiece in place of workmanship. Why then, if statistics show that I am a miracle and scripture says that I am a masterpiece, do I feel like anything but?
I work for a construction company and before we sign off completion on a project, we perform a walk-through. Any areas that got scuffed up along the way, need touching up, or need refining gets marked with blue tape. The reason why we can struggle to feel like a masterpiece is that you can see all your areas with blue tape. But you are not complete, and God is not done with you yet! He is still working on you, refining you, and transforming you. Philippians 1:6 says “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day Christ Jesus returns.
You were created for this specific time. Where you live, where you work, who you are friends with, you were created for it all. You were called to a life full of passion and purpose, not to merely exist and survive it. I often think about what my purpose in this life is, what kind of impact I can really make, and what legacy I will leave behind. And so often I look outside of myself for clues and answers to those questions. The most important step and one that I personally feel is the hardest, to find these answers is believing in your heart that YOU matter and that you were specifically chosen…designed with intention.
Rather than searching for the answers to why I am here, I need to shift to searching for the courage to do what I was already created in advance to do. Living small is comfortably miserable. It sounds so crazy when you say it out loud, those two words don’t belong together! Stepping into a life full of passion and purpose is intimidating and daunting. But God can’t bless actions that you don’t take. Once you start down the path of becoming all that you were created to be, your decision supernaturally opens more doors for you. We only need to partner with God’s guidance and grace to help us along the way.
– Martes Campbell
