You Are Mine - Emily Chilongo
With all the people we meet and our daily surroundings, often our desire is to belong. To belong to a family, a school, an organisation, a group of friends or even some day a spouse. This desire can often get us somewhat lost in society. We yearn to belong to places and people - that instead of adding value to our being, they take away. It isn’t wrong to want to belong to someone or something, but we lose ourselves when we find belonging in the wrong things.
When I was younger I had a group of friends that (to me) seemed to be everything I wanted to be. They would visit one another on weekends and hang out, invite each other to fun parties with gifts and everything pretty. I desperately wanted to be one of them, to be included, to belong. However I wasn’t always invited and the few times I was, my parents weren’t comfortable allowing me to go. So there I was, feeling like I was missing out. Out of anger I would blame my parents, saying they’re too strict, they don’t allow me to go anywhere or have any fun. But in actual fact, they loved me and knew what was best for me. They could see what I could not, that the group I so desperately wanted to belong to was not the right one for me. I came to realise this later as I grew up and their lives went in the opposite direction to mine.
I was longing to be included in something I was never intended to be a part of in the first place. Who knows the person I would have grown into or what would have happened if I had fought what was best for me and rebelled against my parents to be a part of that group.
Like my parents knew, God knows what is best for you and He sees what you may be blinded to. We belong to God our Father first before we belong to anyone or anything else. If you have been looking for a person or place to belong to, turn to our sole creator. He formed us in our mother’s womb, fearfully and wonderfully made.
“.. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, you are Mine.” Isaiah 43: 1 (NIV)
“He calls you by name”, this means that He already knows you deeply. Our names are set in stone the day we are born, sometimes even before. Our names hold a part of our identity, who we are and if the God of all creation can call you by name, wouldn’t you be interested in what He has to say? He is not someone who appeared late in your story and decided to make you His child just because He is God. He was there from the beginning, constantly chasing after you, loving you even when you really didn’t love Him back.
“You are Mine”, we belong to Him. Some of us live out our journey with Christ without a true revelation of being a daughter, of being His. We tend to not want to bother such a big God with our “small problems”, but what we don’t realise is that the very definition of being His, makes Him want to be a part of every area of our lives no matter how big or small it is. We have the benefit of a constant loving Father we can turn to at all times.
When so called friends turn us away, He says you are Mine.
When we don’t get the job we wanted, He says you are Mine.
When our earthly parents leave us, He says you are Mine.
When we ran away from Him, He still says YOU ARE MINE.
If we have the foundation of where we belong placed in God our Father, then everything else will simply be added on. When we understand that we belong to God first, we will thereafter belong to the right things. Everything is not always picture perfect, but the beauty of being with God is that if we get something wrong, we fall back on the right foundation and we never completely lose ourselves when we turn to God.
“.. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20 (NIV)
It is so comforting to know that you belong to He who calls you by name and not only says that you are His, but also that He will never leave you. There is no place or person to belong to that is better than God Himself.
Written By Emily Chilongo