Nicole feels

I gave a talk at our M0PS meeting this past Tuesday. I thought I'd post it here, in three parts, over the next few days.

Rob and I went to S@m�s Club earlier this week and purchased a box of Clementines. Have you had one? Small, juicy tangerines that hail from the far off coast of Spain. Juicy little bits of citrus fruit. And as is often the case, God revealed a bit of a lesson in that little orange gem.

As I held a Clementine in my hand, turning it this way and that, admiring its shading and hue, I thought to myself, �You know, this Clementine was made for a purpose. And in order for it to get into my hands, it had to be picked.� Someone, or something, plucked it off a tree in Spain. It was chosen, so to speak, for a greater purpose than remaining on a tree. Why grow them just to look at them hanging on the tree? That just seems silly � they were grown for a purpose and they are picked specifically to do what they were created to do.

Likewise, we�ve been made for a purpose. In his book, The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren states:

In Psalms, it says �The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.� (Ps. 138:8, NIV) You know, I have no problem believing that little fruit was grown on purpose for a purpose. But I often struggle with who I am, why I am here.

But the fact is, God not only chose to make me � to make you! � He chose me, and you, to be His! Just like this fruit was picked to be enjoyed and savored, God picked you for His pleasure.

Some of us have experienced an �unplanned� pregnancy. When K@ytlin was 9 months old, I discovered I was late. I was still nursing her, so the old birth control was creative at best, but we were being careful. I broke the news to Rob, and he replied, quite matter-of-factly, �I know. You�re pregnant. I prayed for a son.�

Hello!? Why didn�t you tell me about this little prayer!?

So, we joke that N@than is our planned accident (we knew we wanted more children, the timing was the �surprise�, at least on my end of the deal!). But despite the surprise factor, the knowledge that a new life was growing inside of me brought joy, hope, pleasure.

It is one thing to give birth to your own child, but think about those moms and dads out there who have adopted a child. A person whom they did not bear, who is not genetically linked to them, and yet they choose to take that child in and love him or her as their own. That child becomes theirs. Chosen! Picked. Loved.

That�s what God does. He picks us. He adopts us into His family. And then He loves us beyond measure.

I need to grab a hold of this! God did not need to create me, but He chose to create me for His own enjoyment.