Sunday, December 4, 2011

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made




Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
We went to help celebrate my (Jamie) brothers 50th birthday last night. On the agenda for the evening there was to be a roast of my brother, Charlie. I had planned to share, but everyone was enjoying the festivities so well that it got late. Being that I was recovering from a sinus infection partnered with laryngitis we needed to leave when the clock struck 9:30.
It was a shame to miss that part because I had prepared to share about my brothers younger years.  Few there new him during his boyhood years, but so often it shows you a glimpse into things to come. That night someone by the fire pit asked me if Charlie was always as creative as he is now. God designs us perfectly and scripture says that “He even knows us before we were formed in our mothers womb.” So I will share about him...
My brother, Charlie, is a great guy. He is creative, gifted, innovative, funny, loves nature and life and has favor wherever he goes! How’s that for near perfect. He worked for Southern Living (maintaining and designing gardens, and was Garden Editor) while in high-school then after college and all of his career until the last two years where he has stepped out in faith and begun his own gardening business at the Garden Gallery (shameless advertising).
As a young boy, at some point, my grandmother (who did not live in our town) spoke to my mother, expressing great concern of Charlie not having enough male influence in his life. At that young age he was surrounded by three older sisters and an “at home” mother, but a father that was on the road a great deal of the time.
My mother, was creative in her own right, and coupled with a limited budget and not wanting to make a significant investment until she knew something was going to “take,” sent Charlie down the street where we had a neighborhood lake. He took a long stick, a string tied to it and small safety pin attached to the string. You got it, a home-made fishing pole. I don’t even think Charlie used bait! And guess what he came home with? In less than an hour there was a commotion at the front door and in come the three musketeers, Charlie and his two buds, Ray and Ted Blackston. And there on the safety pin, Charlie had a brim about two inches long. Wearing an ear to ear grin, up until that day, I believe it was the happiest day Charlie had spent on earth.
At a young age, he exhibited tendencies to being a “real” mans-man. But my mother being a peace loving woman, didn’t feel right about buying toy guns for her little boy to play with. So what did Charlie do? Got a clothes pin, clipped a long unsharpened pencil in it and used it as a gun! Running through the house saying pow-pow, we quickly learned that there was “built-in” innovation and determination in this little boy. 
Any season you go to my brothers house these days, you will see the most unusual things exhibited in the most unusual ways. Creatively and beautifully he brings together rustic and nature. It is an adventure just walking through rooms in his house just taking things in. He is fearfully and wonderfully made because of the time that was taken to develop him. By his grandmothers concerns, my mother leapt to action. The intervention, introduction and development had been executed in giving him the ability to see and function in the world creatively. 
It is the same with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is there, scripture says, placed within us as a “down payment” when we become Christians. But unless it is developed or tapped into, we don’t experience it to the full. And as Charlie was determined, he pursued that “deep” need within him. Because it was in his DNA. The Holy Spirit is also part of our DNA as believers. We must be determined and pursue the Holy Spirit to fill that “deep” need that we have to find who we are, who we are to be and what the plan for life is. 
“A mans heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps” -Proverbs 16:9
“And I walk at liberty, and at ease, for I have sought and inquired for [and desperately required],  Your precepts.” -Psalm 119:45 AMP