Knowing who I am
News reached a long line of airline passengers bound for New York that their flight had been cancelled. Many were visibly annoyed. One passenger suddenly pushed his way to the front of the line and demanded a first-class ticket on the next flight to New York.
"I'm sorry," said the ticket agent calmly, "but you will have to wait your turn. All these people were ahead of you in the line." At that the irate passenger pounded his fist on the counter and screamed, "Do you have any idea who I am?"
Calmly, the ticket agent picked up the public address microphone and said, "Attention please all passengers for the flight to New York City. There is a man here at the ticket counter who does not know who he is. If there is anyone who can identify him, please come to the counter."
The passenger had had a mistaken impression of who he was. By now, the other passengers had a pretty good idea.
In a rather comic scene in the movie Who Am I Jackie Chan is trying to regain his memory. He asks repeatedly, “Who am I? Who am I?” The natives in aboriginal dress mistakenly pick up the message and echo, “His name is Who Am I.”
When Moses asked God who he was, God answered, “I am who am.” God is almighty and cannot be named since that would put a limit on Him. Logically, our greatness depends on how much of God is in us. Who we are is more contingent on God’s presence in us.
Poet Anne Sexton said, put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard. God wants us to stop and hear His voice in the tumult. It is a still, small voice, but one that echoes with everything we need. It is the voice of a child crying from a manger, the voices of angels proclaiming and shepherds jabbering about a baby born to be King.
It is a voice weeping for those in pain and sickness. It is a voice mourning for those who refuse to hear Him. It is a voice shouting victory over the forces of evil and death. And it is a voice calling us to know Him, to know His love for us, love that grants us one more day of life, filled with all its challenges and blessings.
If we are in touch with that inner voice of God, then all else is right in creation. Then we are beautiful, made in God’s image and likeness. Our uniqueness in creation makes us beautiful or handsome. It is gender neutral, does not go out of style, and cannot be purchased.
It has been said, “A woman with good shoes in never ugly.” But it isn’t fancy clothes or expensive jewellery that makes a woman beautiful - it’s who she is inside that defines her. This beauty, as we said above, is gender neutral and never goes out of style. (Thanks to Linda Wegner Words of Worth for some of these thoughts).
Bob Marley was once asked if there was a perfect woman. He replied, “Who cares about perfection? Even the moon is not perfect, it is full of craters. The sea is incredibly beautiful, but salty and dark in the depths. The sky is always infinite, but often cloudy. So, everything that is beautiful isn't perfect, it's special.”
We are special! We are loved and warmly pursued by a God who has carved our names in the palm of his hand.
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