A Matter of Identity

By: Wendy D. Vance

Who am I? This is a question that many of us have asked and/or continue to struggle with today. We have many labels – male, female, short, tall, fat, skinny, rich, poor, Millennial, Gen X, this group, that group and another group. And then if you have a disability, not only do you live with the labels above that tell us who we are, you also live with labels that others have put on you. Granted these labels are most often medical diagnoses that can often lead to medical treatment or grant access to assistance programs, but they can also be labels or identities that cast one into the realm of otherness. Something that is less that human, something that is broken. Cast offs like the throw away pancake, you know the one, it is usually the first one that is a little overdone or misshapen. Although there is nothing actually wrong with it, it is identified as inedible and thrown away because it has some imperfections that impacts appearance but has nothing to do with its identity as a pancake. And like that pancake, people with disabilities are often thrown away, deemed unable to benefit society, thrown into group homes that often have substandard conditions, facing unspeakable abuses and neglect even to the point of death or placed in sheltered workshops making pennies per day while CEOs take home six digit salaries. Then of course, there is the counsel by doctors to abort when a baby is found to have a disability, women are told that it is more humane because this child will be a burden and have no quality of life. Before coming into the world, these sweet babies are deemed life unworthy of life. But I would ask – by whose standards? You see, perhaps the question should not be who am I or what purpose do I serve to society, but rather whose am I?

To whom do I belong is a very different question because it does not rely on the opinion of man, it relies rather on the infallible Word of God and who He says that we are in this world and the world to come. It is a question that transcends the temporal labels of this world that are meant to separate and divide us into groups – creating a hierarchy of worthiness. Whose am I is a question with eternal significance.

So who is it that God says that we are? He says that we are His creation, “ before I formed you in the womb I knew you” Jeremiah 1:5. Although, this verse was originally directed to Jeremiah specifically, as God spoke to Jeremiah about his specific purpose, it speaks to us all. God created each of us, knowing who we would be before He created us. He says that we are His children, adopted into the family via the shed blood of Yeshua(Jesus), “But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God,” John 1:12. He says that we are loved “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” He did not say that He loved some who were already perfectly formed, a certain race, gender, weight, political party etc., He said that he loves all and gave Yeshua for all so that none of us would perish in eternal separation from Himself, but so that we would have eternal life with Him. The only qualification is that we place our belief in Christ Yeshua (Jesus), in His death and resurrection. He bought us, redeemed us from our enslavement to this world and the systems that say that we have little to no value. He, Himself made the bridge from this world into the Kingdom of Heaven. Why? Because He wants us to have eternal life.

When we accept Yeshua and are baptized, we become something/someone entirely new, our identity is not what the world says of us but what God says. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And what have we become ?– Children of God. Ask yourself what label or title on Earth carries with it more value than being a child of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Your value is not defined because of who you are, your wealth, gender, race, disability status, it is defined by whose you are. It is not something that you can earn, buy, take by force, it is rather the free gift that is given by the Father who so His children that He took upon Himself all our sin, failures, hurts, pain and washed us clean in the crimson flood of the cross.

“You're a good, good Father It's who You are, it's who You are, it's who You are And I'm loved by You It's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am.” Chris Tomlin – Good Good Father

So who am I? I am dearly loved by God, I am His daughter, I am a Princess, I am a Priestess. I am the lost sheep and He came to find me, lost, afraid, and dirty. He made me clean and new. Not because of who I am but because of whose I am and my Father says that I am dearly loved, my home is not of this world but in the world eternal.

Today, I encourage you to stop searching this world to find meaning, value and purpose. For in the systems of this world is division and hierarchy – there can be no true equality, no rest, no fulfilment here, only endless searching for who am I. But in my Father’s house, Yeshua says in John 14:2 that there are many rooms and that He is preparing a place for me and for you. I invite you to accept your place in the Father’s house as a child of God, in His house you will find rest and a joy that surpasses all understanding.