Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

For many years, I thought there were no photos of me as a baby. Years ago, our family lost the old video reels that captured my earliest days in a fire, before they could be converted to digital. I believed those memories were gone forever.

A few years ago, my sister discovered a single, very degraded photo of me with my siblings. Even that felt like a treasure.

Recently, my aunt went through an envelope of old family photos she’d been holding onto, and unexpectedly found a few baby pictures she didn’t even know were there. It felt incredibly significant.

Last night, as I went through the envelope, I came across one photo she had missed that completely stopped me.

It was the very first photo ever taken of me. It seems my sass made its debut here, and tears of joy instantly filled my eyes and heart.

To realize this tiny picture had been saved all these years felt sacred…a window back into the very beginning of my life.

A friend asked me, “What would you say to that sweet girl now?” I sat with that question for a while.

So to that tiny girl in the photograph, this is what I would say:

You are a precious daughter of the King.

You are made in His image, beautifully and wonderfully made, just as the Scriptures promise.

You are not your mistakes. You are not the world’s definition of beauty. You are you…and that is the best and only way to be.

You are not your title. You are smart, kind, caring, strong, and lovely in all the ways that truly matter.

There will be times when the world’s voices try to tell you that you aren’t good enough, but you will stand above them anyway, not in height…but in the way you treat others.

Do not let the enemy shape who you are or who you will become. Do not let the treatment of others pull you away from what, and who, truly matters.

And most of all, love Jesus and come to know Him personally. He will change your life in ways you cannot yet imagine, far beyond what the world expects or understands.

Holding that photograph reminded me that my story has always been in God’s hands, even from the very beginning.