God of Unique Gifts

One of the most frustrating of human experiences is realizing that other persons are not like you. 

You usually run up against this reality when you are in close quarters with other humans - through marriage or family, through work relationships, in community. For me, every time I clean out the refrigerator in the break room at work, I realize how very different others are. (There are other things, too, that remind me of this.) 

At the same time, I am often reminded how different I am from other persons. I will do something that seems very natural to me, like recalling a piece of information or creating a piece of art, and someone will inevitably look at me and say, "How do you do that?" 

I don't know, I always say and shrug. It's just how God made me. 

And that's the thing that is often hardest to remember when we're frustrated by someone who isn't doing things the way we would be doing them - God made each one of us different. 

Most often, when we talk about this in a Christian context, we talk about being complementary, about how we are all one body made up of different parts, and how we need teachers, encouragers, givers, hopers, pray-ers, administrators, etc. among us to function properly as a body. And yes, true. That's all well and good. 

It's just a lot harder to remember when we're trying to do the same task in the same space and those kinds of differences and complements aren't clearly obvious. 

When someone is frustrating me, I confess that I very rarely (okay: never) think to myself, "Gosh, God has created them in a such a beautiful and unique way with an incredible gift that I don't understand right now but I'm sure it's contributing to His glory even as I'm about to pull my own hair out." 

Yup. Never. 

But all of those things I'm never thinking are still true, even if I'm not thinking them. 

Paul actually sums up this human experience quite well in 1 Corinthians 7:7. He says, "I wish everyone were like me, but they're not. They're just the way God made them instead. They each have their own gift."

And that's a good reminder, especially when I really wish everyone else had my gifts so that, you know, they wouldn't do annoyingly dumb things that don't make any sense at all and would instead adopt my awesomeness, efficiency, and logic because it just makes so much more sense than whatever they're thinking right now, if they're even thinking at all. 

See? Here I am again. 

The way God made each of us is a gift, even if it's hard for us to remember that sometimes. Which is why, I guess, we need the reminder from Paul that we're not alone. 

I wish everyone was like me, but they're not. They're just the way God made them instead, with their own gifts. 

And that in itself is a gift for all of us.