I found this quote from Henri Nouwen to be very insightful and inspiring. The author helps us to understand not only our unique identity as children of God but also our special calling to convince others that they too share that identity before God.
As a new year begins, I invite you to read this quote carefully and to consider how God sees you and how he sends you into this world:
"If you dare to believe that you are beloved before you are born, you may suddenly realize that your life is very, very special. You become conscious that you were sent here just for a short time, for twenty, forty, or eighty years, to discover and believe that you are a beloved child of God. The length of time doesn’t matter. You are sent into this world to believe in yourself as God’s chosen one and then to help your brothers and sisters know that they are also Beloved Sons and Daughters of God who belong together. You’re sent into this world to be a people of reconciliation. You are sent to heal, to break down the walls between you and your neighbors, locally, nationally, and globally. Before all distinctions, the separations, and the walls built on foundations of fear, there was a unity in the mind and heart of God. Out of that unity, you are sent into this world for a little while to claim that you and every other human being belongs to the same God of Love who lives from eternity to eternity."
—Henri Nouwen, Finding My Way Home: Pathways to Life and the Spirit
PRAY
Ask God to affirm your identity as his child, and to clarify your mission in this world. Pray for churches to re-discover this same identity and purpose in 2024, that we might work together more effectively.
