Who am I? We are the only creatures asking that question and our Creator is the only one who can answers it. Rabbits, Robins, and Redfish do not question who they might be. They simply live as Rabbits, Robins and Redfish. And they glorify their creator God by being what they were created to be. Simple. But we, the fallen sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, have made it complicated. We refuse to joyfully live as dependent creatures needing a word from God to define and fulfill us. We now seek to change our created identity and become as God.
Who am I? We now try to answer that question with the broken and insufficient tools of our fallen, limited reason. We do not accept our Creator’s answer. We seek to “find” ourselves. We think, self must be fulfilled and my desires satisfied. We choose our own path and re-invent our created selves.
Justin Anthony Kennedy once claimed, wrongly, “at the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence.” That was Satan’s successful strategy in the Garden of Eden. “Don’t be content with what God says you are. Go your own way! Make your own rules!” Today, that that focus constitutes a false gospel. “Be true to yourself.” “Look within for answers.” “Follow your heart.” “Be uniquely you – however you might define it.” If you listen closely, you can hear the tempter’s voice: “don’t let anyone tell you what to believe, or what to do, or limit who you are.” “Follow me, heed me, submit to me, conform to my voice and be independent. Be authentically you!” And so we deny reality and run from our created glory.
Have you seen toddlers who think they are birds? They jump off the picnic table fully expecting to fly! But facts are stubborn things and reality teaches them a painful lesson.
Who are we really? God says we are made in His image, fallen in Adam, redeemed in Christ. We are dependent servants, safe in His hands, guided by His purpose, and becoming more like Jesus.
“I would rather be
What God chose to make me,
Than the most glorious creature
That I could think of.
For to have been thought about—
Born in God’s thoughts—
And then made by God,
Is the dearest,
Grandest,
Most precious thing
In all thinking.”
― George MacDonald, Essential Poems*