During our house meeting last week, we all shared stories of disappointment concerning our own failures and inabilities. The common theme was, “I’m not.” God began to challenge us to focus not on the “nots” but rather on the “ams”. The list of things we are not is never ending. The list of things we are no good at is infinite. But there are things we ARE good at, and there are things we know we are. “I AM” challenges us to confess the things we are. Make no mistake: we’re nothing without Jesus, and we can do nothing apart from Him. With Him, we really are something, and we really can do all things.

Have you ever seen the Veggie Tale episode, “A Snoodle’s Tale”? It’s prophetic. I’m not using that term lightly. As a daddy of 5, i have ample opportunity to view children’s cinema. This one gets me every time. In the show, a young snoodle is created. He begins to discover the gifts that he has and assumes that because he has them he must be called to use them. He has wings and a kazoo and a set of paints. He concludes that he must be an artist, a musician and a flyer! Then, others begin to critique the use of his gifts. They begin to define him, saying he’s no good at art and not meant to fly. The others paint pictures of how they see him and place those pictures in the young snoodle’s backpack. The pack weighs him down; he believes their evaluations. Dejected, he separates himself.

Then, the young snoodle meets the Creator. The first thing the Creator does is BURN the pictures that the others painted! Then, He paints a picture of how He sees the snoodle boy. It shocks the young one, because the image looks older and stronger and braver than he. He asks, “Are You saying that’s me?” When placed in his pack, this picture makes the young snoodle lighter and free. He is able to soar and to be who he really is. Do i need to unpack the message for you?

God, Who is the same yesterday, today and forever, sees us not only as we appear in the present. He sees who we are in eternity. That is, past, present and future. Sometimes we think that the past matters not at all. It does. It matters that God chooses to forget the sins of our past. It matters that God remembers the loving movements of our hearts in days gone by. Think of something beautiful that you and God did together in the past. Right now, God thinks of you as His child who DOES that.

My wife loves ceramics. In college she took several courses in pottery. She spent hours in the workshop pouring out her creativity on the wheel. Now, we have 5 children. Our time and resources are spent differently, and Sooz hasn’t thrown clay in a long time. Sometimes she feels like that gift is gone. One morning i told Sooz that if God were to introduce her to someone He would say, “This is my daughter Susanna; she makes pottery for Me!” He is still enjoying what she did in the past, and He is already enjoying what she will do in the future.

God has such a different experience of time than we. Allow me to share how I think of God and time: He is still receiving joy and honor and glory from righteous acts of the saints in days gone by. Our pleasures fade so quickly. His pleasures are forevermore. Right now, God is already enjoying who we will be and what we will doin the future! The Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, The Great I AM has a perfect experience of past, present and future. And so, when He looks at us today, He sees not only today, but yesterday and forever.

I say this all to comfort you, to comfort me. We’ve done some beautiful things with Jesus in our lives: He remembers. We’ve done some awful things: He forgets. He knows the plans He has for us; He created works for us to walk in before the foundation of the world; He sees what we shall be; He knows our new name, and He calls us by that name now. We don’t have to compare our present with our past or imagined future. We don’t need to despise today. We can rest in being known and loved as a whole, eternal person. Let this free us from shame concerning who wewere, and anxiety over who we shall be. Let the love of I AM free us to be who weare.