the best of intentions

"Remember," Eli said as the Wemmick walked out the door, "you are special because I made you. And I don't make mistakes."

eli is the woodworker, and the wemmick is punchinello, the wooden guy who always gets bad marks. he's clumsy, scratched, silly, unpopular. he's convinced he's not a good wemmick, and so is everyone else.

except eli.

you see, eli doesn't make mistakes. in you are special, by max lucado, children are supposed to learn that God made us all just as we are and loves us just that way. all we need to do is come to Him to be reminded.

He doesn't make mistakes. there's more to that for me tonight. eliza, with her broken body and broken brain, was just the way He made her. intentionally. luke, with his separation anxiety, his brilliant mind, his selfish habits, and his boundless energy, is just right. intentionally. sam and i, broken and downtrodden, we who cannot--refuse to--stop making the same mistakes over and over again, are just as He made us. intentionally.

forgiven and forgotten. and created with intention.

and the thing is, just as i would never hate what He made my children to be, i cannot hate how He made me. i don't know the plans He has for me--He promises that He plans to prosper me and not harm me--but if i despise what i am, i hate what He planned.

i am in awe of that tonight. it is not my place to question the Creator. "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He did not make me'? Can the pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing'? [...] Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand" (Isaiah 29:16, 64:8).

forgiven, forgotten (my sins, that is), and intended.

Punchinello didn't stop, but in his heart he thought, I think he really means it.