“In baptism, each of us is a precious treasure. Granted, “Child of God” and “Saint” are not terms that appear on resumes. God has named us thus not just for being but for doing.
That’s the tricky part about Christian identity: It has baggage. The baggage is that we must keep on being and doing, secure in the knowledge that God will provide what we need to accomplish the tasks set before us.
Even amid the world’s shortcomings and difficulties, we remember and rejoice that this is the world that God so loves. Despite the world’s idea of evidence to the contrary, in great love God decided to make us and put us in this world, endow us with the capacity to make choices and love us right on into eternal life.
Our identity problem is not so much with the world not knowing or forgetting who we are. Our identity problem is not even that the world assumes it can rename us or tell us who we are.
We are God’s and we belong to God. Nothing can ever change that. Rest assured in your identity. Remember not just who you are, but whose you are.”
Today we remember Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, bishop, renewer of the church (1872). This message was adapted from “St. Nobody” written by Marguerite M. Rourk that first appeared in the December 2008 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.