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I'm a person, and sometimes I forget...

Minutes before reading this post I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how the ends just weren't meeting this month. I was beating myself up for buying the weekly pass for public transportation (when, yes, I could have just walked the hour and a half to work and everywhere in-between) , for buying the zucchini ( when really I could just get by with the tomato), and thinking how foolish it was for me to even entertain the idea of maybe getting a bed of my own before heading to Texas for the holidays… I've learned to live without a lot, but sometimes it's of my own doing.

I encourage all of you, whether I am the only missionary you know or one of many, please take a few minutes to read this post. I couldn't have written it better myself. Thankfully Jenn Tate had just the right words to sum up how so many of us feel. 

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10 Things That This Missionary is Telling You; A Response.

So I have seen this article floating around entitled "10 things missionaries won't tell you" . And after reading this list, I can say that I understand where each point is stemming from but they were a little too passive aggressive for my taste so I couldn't re-post as something that reflected my own views. Instead, I decided to take the challenge and make it a little more personal and specific to my own situation. You can read the original article here if you would like, but here is my version for your consideration. 

10 THINGS MISSIONARIES WON'T TELL YOU (but I'm a bit more open so here you go)

* Being a missionary is hard work. Everybody knows that. But the things we think of as the hard parts – lack of modern amenities, exposure to disease, and the like – only begin to scratch the surface of the difficulties of real missionary life. Often, it is the things left unsaid that really begin to erode the passion and soul of a missionary. Here are just a few of those things… (original article text)

1. THEY DON'T HAVE TIME OR ENERGY TO WRITE…BUT THEY DO IT FOR YOU

  - Taking time to write a succinct newsletter updating you on the strange ins and outs of missionary life, cataloging the, often daily, way that what we "do" changes, and keeping our friends/family/supporters abreast on our day to day ministry is taxing. But we do it. We do it because we love and appreciate you, but also (and maybe even more so) because we don't want you to forget us. If you want to truly honor or respect your missionary friends/family/etc please take the time to read the updates they send you. Since we are not able to meet with you face to face (which is my preferred method of human interaction, hands down) try taking our newsletters/updates with you out to lunch and read them as if we were talking to you in person. If what you read generates questions or elicits a response, write it down and tell us when you have a chance. And trust me, we know it is very difficult to understand what we do just by reading words, so I will speak for every missionary I know and say this; If you have questions, PLEASE ask us! If you miss us, let us know! 

2. FACEBOOK "LIKES" DON'T PAY THE BILLS

- When we use social media to let our friends and family know about a financial need (whether it be personal or ministry related) please realize that these things are actual and immediate. We are using social media as a tool to get the word out and invite you to join us in being part of the miracle of provision. It is discouraging and sometimes hurtful to see those things liked/retweeted/reposted/shared etc with no other return. If you take the time to like something, please take some time to consider joining in with what we are putting out there. 

3. THEY ASK FOR MONEY BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO CHOICE FINANCES = LESSONS IN HUMILITY AND BEING BOLD

- The truth is, none of us enjoy asking for money.  But for most missionaries, myself included, fundraising is a necessary thing. It's never an easy or comfortable topic to approach but it's still something we must do. It's humbling having to admit that you cannot rely on yourself to provide the means you need to live on, and even more so when you are challenged to approach others in asking for their hard earned financial support. But I believe that this is just part of the life that God has called us to. To be humble in approaching and bold in asking. We DO NOT ask because we have no other choice (as the other article states) we ask because it's part of what God has called us to. We choose to live this life of radically trusting for God's provision because we believe that he provides. But sometimes he asks us to partner with him in seeing that provision come to be. He wants us to actively engage those around us so that they can be a part of our story and his bigger picture. By asking others to support us, we are asking them to help us carry out the work God has moved us to while honoring the way that they have chosen to carry out the Great Commission at home or in the workforce. 

4. YOU'LL NEVER HEAR ABOUT THEIR WORST DAYS (…unless you ask)

- I read something once about a combat veteran that met every question of "what is it like over there?" with a simple "There's lots of sand." He did it because it was easier than getting into the gritty details of a complicated and specialized life. Where rules are different and things just don't equate. I can identify with that need for a simple answer to such a complex question. Because honestly, the worst days are the days where I loose sight of myself and I question everything. The worst days are the days where I encounter things that are way too big for me to understand. The days where the situation I am in is so unreal that if I told you the truth you'd still think I was lying. We endure scary days, hard days and days that bring us great sorrow but, for me, at the end of those days I make the choice to trust that God has a plan and that I'm going to be ok. 

5. THEY NEED A VACATION…BUT WON'T TELL YOU IF THEY TAKE ONE

- This coin has two sides:

1. A common misconception is that our work allows us to vacation in the places we visit. Sometimes, this is true. And for those of us that do this long term, we are really grateful when we get the chance to work in seeing an attraction or world wonder. But the reality is that for us "going to Thailand" doesn't mean beaches and getting tan, it means sitting in an old woman's hut in the slums or sitting with a lady-boy at a karaoke bar as they tell us their life story. We are grateful to go, see and experience the world in the ways that we do but these times are anything but a vacation.

2.A common struggle that we face is the desperate need to get away. When you are a missionary, your job doesn't have a punch in/punch out time, your personal life IS your work life.  Weekdays, weekends, middle of the night… you name it.  Unfortunately, when those rare opportunities arise where we can get away, we are often met with unkind remarks from the outside world and even those that support us. To avoid those remarks and save ourselves the hours of asking God "Why did you let me take this vacation" instead of thanking him for the beautiful time he blessed us with, we sometimes just refrain from sharing. 

6. HOSTING TEAMS IS A NIGHTMARE (sometimes)

- Please be kind when planning a short-term trip to visit people doing long term work. Recognize that whatever impact you leave is what they will have to work with when you are gone. When you go to visit a longtermer plan on serving them instead of demanding that they cater to you. Ask them what size team would be best for their needs and the needs of the people they serve. We recognize that there is value in short term mission trips and are so happy for non-missionaries to get a taste of what our lives are like on a daily basis but PLEASE come with a desire to serve and listen to the requests, needs and capacities of your contacts because we know the field the best. And PLEASE, be mindful and aware of "voluntourists", across the globe we are in need of people to go and share Jesus without being motivated by things like the amount of selfies they are going to take with the cute village kids. Attitudes and postures like these can really damage or even cut off relationships that have taken us weeks/months/years to grow. 

7. "GOING HOME" IS A LOT OF WORK

- I really couldn't change anything about this because the original writer hit the nail on the head: 

" Please understand, I now have two homes. When I'm at one, I'm away from the other, and there is a lot of emotion involved in that. On top of that, my life is absolutely crazy when I go "home". I have to see relatives and friends, visit with partner churches, and take care of any number of issues that have arisen with my health, electronic devices, and my government paperwork. Whether it's a few weeks or a few months, I spend my time living out of suitcases and hustling from one appointment to the next. Is it good to be home? Sure. But when I get on that plane to go to my other home, I breathe a sigh of relief that life is almost back to "normal".

8. IT'S EASY FOR GOD TO TAKE BACK SEAT IN THEIR LIFE

- We are 100% human and 100% flawed… and that definitely includes our spirituality. We fall into the same routines that you do; get up, go to work, come home, do it again. Especially when the work is often undefined and seemingly endless… there are days that we do what needs to be done in order to get through to the next day. And sometimes there are stretches of time where this pattern arises and we look back and realize we forgot to bring God along with us. If you look at my journals, you will find some months with multiple pages filled for every day because I'm voraciously processing what God is saying and then the next page is dated 3 months later. It's usually those times that I have floundered and struggled the most. Sometimes we get so caught up in what we have to "do" that we leave the one we are doing it for behind. It's a weird truth but at least it's honest. 

9. IT'S HARD TO TRUST LOVE PEOPLE 

- 9 times out of 10 a missionaries "job" consists of loving people first and foremost. It's the biggest thing that God calls us to do. To love one another as ourselves… but sometimes that love is hard to muster. Because even as missionaries we are still prone to being human, and humans hurt other humans. Some of our deepest hurts in ministry don't come from the people who persecute us but the people that walk alongside us in ministry. This thing we do is a constant revolving door and sometimes it's easier to remain unattached than to be hurt when the people you invest in leave. I think we've all entertained at least the idea of just not pursuing a friendship/relationship with so-and-so because it's going to hurt when they leave or let us down BUT from where I sit, this is the challenge that we have to accept: Are we still willing to love them anyways? Inevitable broken heart and all, are we willing to adopt Jesus eyes and ears to see and hear them like he does. To love unconditionally- meaning without guarantee of return or reciprocation. 

10. THEY ARE LONELY

- Save the very few, most of us deal with bouts of feeling forgotten. We spend hours updating and trying to connect with friends/families/supporters/churches and sometimes the only return we see is the message in our inbox telling us that person_x's mail was undeliverable. We sometimes long for the comfort of a "normal" life because that means "normal" interactions with other humans. We are under a constant attacking stream of thought that nobody understands/remembers/cares about us etc. Our biggest dreams sometimes are as simple as having someone from home come and visit you where you are so that they can relate to the life you live. 

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To close, I would like to add that being a missionary is awesome. I would gladly choose being here over any other place I could choose to be. Despite all of these things that we don't tell you, most of us will gladly tell you for days the10 fold list of things that we love about what we do and the hilarious/amazing/weird things that come along with it.  We sometimes choose to omit some of the great things too, purely based on social propriety or saving face so you don't think we are insane. For the sake of disclosure though I'll share a few that would make my list:

- TRADING STORIES ABOUT BATHROOM EXPERIENCES IN THE FIELD ARE A FAVORITE PASTIME 

- LEGALITY IS SOMETIMES NOT PART OF THEIR VOCABULARY

- CARE PACKAGES AND HANDWRITTEN LETTERS SOMETIMES CAUSE TEARS OF JOY 

- LANGUAGE BLUNDERS LAND THEM IN WEIRD SITUATIONS

- PROFICIENCY AT ADAPTING RECIPES IS A TREASURED SKILL TO HONE 

- SEEING A NATION THROUGH THE EYES OF A LOCAL IS BETTER THAN ANY GUIDED NAVIGATION

- THEY'VE EATEN THINGS THEY'D RATHER NOT REMEMBER BUT THEY LAUGH WHEN THEY DO Ok... now go and catch up with your missionary friends. (And if you don't know any; Hi, I'm Ashley and I'd love to fill that spot. ) 

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In a moment, I had identified the problem; a bad seed, planted long ago, that was causing my soul to decay. Killing me silently for more years than I could count, buried under mountains of lies, shame, guilt and deceit I saw it and said "that's enough". I pointed it out and said "take it Jesus, I'm done". And just when I thought I was too rotten inside to ever exude anything but the stench of death, that still, small voice spoke through human lips and detected the essence of Christ taking over me. "You smell like Jesus! You are exuding the aroma of Christ!" Death has lost its sting, it no longer has a place in me. Gone in an instant! Hallelujah to the God of the Redeemed!!

- a snip it of my day today

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A beautifully written blogpost by a good friend on what daily life as a missionary looks like... I literally couldn't have written this better myself, so here ya go. 

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Burkina Update Stories and photos from my time in Burkina Faso.

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Clarity & Clouds

For the 6 weeks preceding I had been chasing a wild adventure of trusting God and sharing the depths of my understanding of him and his love for others with the beautiful people of Burkina Faso. I was in the middle of the bush bush, so far away from communication I had almost forgotten the word telephone when I received a phone call.

"Ash, It's Dad… you need to start thinking about coming home."

The words hadn't left his mouth but I knew, My Grandma was going home to be with Jesus.

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Before I left for Burkina, I had two dreams: In one, I was picking cotton in fields alongside the women who used it to make fabric and in the other, a dead man was being raised to life. They were simple and seemingly normal, nothing wildly prophetic, just more a promise of things to come. But as I stood in the middle of  that village, surrounded by harvested cotton fields with a decision about life and death before me, these dreams took on a whole new reality. 

Over the last months I had been in a process of learning what it means to give everything for the sake of the gospel, to prefer others over myself and how to truly love. So with the present and dream worlds colliding, God was reminding me of all I had learned… to lean on the way I know his voice, the way that I know he speaks to me. 

"God, I don't understand. I love this team so much and I know you have incredible things still to come for us. I don't want to leave, it would hurt so bad. I love these people like my own family, I can't abandon them now.

…But I trust you so… should I stay or should I go?"

"Go."

At the word, I felt my heart crack. 

He had stirred my heart so much and allowed me to love the people of this nation deeper than I ever thought possible, and now I had to leave? And what about my team?  They were just starting to thrive and I wouldn't be there to see how far they'd go? WHY!?

It took a while before I was able to see past the confusion, but once I did it all made sense. I didn't like the answer, but it made sense. This was another lesson in preferring others over myself. Another opportunity to give everything for the sake of the gospel. Was I willing to prefer the needs of my family over my own? Was I willing to give the remaining time in Burkina to God and trust that He would do even greater things with it in my absence? Either answer would have been ok, but this was an opportunity for me to be thrust into the fire and refined yet again. 

I chose the fire. I chose to go home.

As I sat on the plane, teary eyed from sadness, I thought of my newborn nephew whom I had yet to meet and immediately was reminded of the dream of the man being raised from the dead and God spoke very clearly: "I never give death without the promise of new life." And I began weeping and laughing simultaneously. I probably looked crazy, but I don't care. My heavenly Father that loves me more than I could ever imagine had just taken my cracked and hurting heart and cleaved it back together. 

Even in the pain, God is so good. After 40 hours of travel I landed and was blessed with the opportunity of holding that fragile new life while saying my goodbyes to my grandmother just hours before her passing. The fulfillment of promises of the God who speaks and comforts and loves. 

When people ask me about the last few months, I don't quite know what to say. It's been beautiful and it's been difficult. I've been tested and worn. I bare the stretch marks of rapid growth and the thin rings of dry seasons. But at the end of the day what I can say is this: It's worth it. JESUS is worth it. All of it. The clarity and the clouds. I may never understand what he is using me to do, but that's not my privilege. My privilege is to know those things and choose to serve and love and adventure with Him anyways.

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This morning we watched this beautiful video. It has nothing to do with God or prayer, but after we watched it we were asked to think about areas where we have seen the fingerprints of God on the things he has made. Immediately I was brought to this: Yesterday, in the small group that I lead,  we saw God moving one of the girls into a time of deep emotional healing and freedom. It is always amazing to be a part of seeing people realize Gods deep love for them, but yesterday, I saw for the first time what it looks like to see that inner working become physical. When this girl smiled, it was a new smile, not just a mask with upturned mouth, but the smile of someone who has felt freedom for the first time. It was a brief moment, lasting only a few seconds, but as I reflected on it this morning I knew that  what I had seen was the fingerprint of the Maker. Beautiful.

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  Last week, during a time of prayer and worship with our DTS's (Discipleship Training Schools) God gave me a picture and it hit me really hard. We were in the middle of worship and taking a few minutes to solely focus on the beauty of God. Now, I am the type of person that quite enjoys the mystery of not knowing what Jesus' face looks like or if God has a shape so instead of seeking out those things I stood there and asked him to show me what he wanted me to see about him. Immediately I saw a clear picture of a lone buffalo standing in a vast and empty field.  A beautiful sight, but it didn't have much context for me, so I asked God to give me clarity. Immediately, i was reminded of how rare these animals are and how few places in the world they are found.  As soon as I came to this realization I heard this:

"I have been forced into extinction in many nations, but You, as sons and daughters and heirs to my Kingdom have the ability to foster the regeneration and multiplication of my existence across the nations." 

Such a lofty thing! I was completely overwhelmed by that. 

As we were in a time of prayer, wanting to stir students faith and get them to see that their prayers really do have power, God shows me this and brings confirmation. He is alive, He is active and He wants to me reconciled to the lands He has been made a stranger... and we get to be a part of that!

...woah

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I cried laughing at this... but really, this is a mesmerizing blog.

Mexicans moving a home along the river highway in Texas. Photograph by B. Anthony Stewart, National Geographic

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Typewriter Series #476 by Tyler Knott Gregson

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Continued revelation: when God really wants to tell us something

I am a missionary. I live in a community of people who have devoted their lives to knowing God and taking his love out into the nations. One would think that we, of all people, would know God as intimately as possible but I am finding more and more that this is simply not true. There is always more to know, He is vast and infinite... how could we possibly know Him completely? 

My housemates and I, as well as others from our community, meet together on sunday afternoons for a simple church service where we take turns bringing some sort of word or revelation. I was asked to speak yesterday and so I set out to do some preparation. I sat down, closed my eyes and simply asked God what He wanted to talk about. Immediately, I heard "John 2", but because it came so quickly I pushed it aside and waited for God to speak. I waited but there was nothing but silence. When I finally realized that what I was waiting for had already been spoken I shook my head and laughed at myself (as I'm sure God was doing too) and opened up to John 2. First, I read verses 1-11

2 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

4 “Woman,[a] why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.[b]

7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Here are a few things that I discerned from reading this:

- Mary knew that Jesus was equipped to do big things. She had complete faith in him & the power he carried.  - Jesus was not planning on performing any "signs" of his authority until his time (his appointment with the cross) but God used this time to draw the disciples to him.  (v.11) - This was also a reminder that God's gifts to us are always the best there is. Even the master of the wedding recognized that the wine Jesus made was the choicest and best wine they had had for the whole celebration. (v10)

 But the thing that struck me the most was the way that John captures Jesus speaking to his mother. In v4 Jesus addresses Mary as "Woman" or "Dear Woman" and while in english this may seem harsh or dismissing, if we look contextually at this, it isn't at all. Read John 19: 26-27 

26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman,[b] here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple,“Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

As Jesus is on the cross, he addresses his mother the same way he does at the wedding feast and sets a plan for her to be taken care of after he is gone. It's a term of endearment. From a loving son to a mother. 

As I was reading this I realized the type of relationship that John and Jesus must have had for him to note these moments the way that he did. In a way that showed the emotions of Jesus.  This revelation went even further as I continued through the rest of the chapter. 

12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.

Jesus Clears the Temple Courts

13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”[c]

18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scriptureand the words that Jesus had spoken.

23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.[d]24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25 He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person. 

v.16 where Jesus addresses the merchants in the temple really got me. John captured such a private emotion of Jesus. He was hurt. Just as any of us would get upset at strangers defiling something we love, Jesus did the same. I looked at this same story in Mark 11: 15-18 and I realized it didn't even seem like the same event. The first three books of the gospel were written as 'Cases for Christ', to convey to the reader the full story of Jesus as a history. John, however, writes in a way that urges the reader to "believe". He provides us with an account that allows us to know Jesus intimately as each piece of the story is told to connect us and help us believe. To see Jesus and to know him as the person of flesh.

This was a great revelation. Especially as a missionary, to see the challenge of being able to speak to believers and nonbelievers about Jesus (as in Matthew, Mark & Luke) but also to be able to understand on a personal level who he was/is as well. 

So today, as we started our week, we asked God to show us what was on his heart and immediately John 1:10 came to mind. Having learned from my silliness the day before, I opened to the verse and this is what I read: 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

Tailing off of the previous day, I came to this conclusion: Jesus wants us to know him. He wants us to not just know of him but to know who he is. 

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It's been a while... check out what I've been doing while I was away. God is so SO good to me. 

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and just when I think I'm about to break, this happens.  #hope #truth 

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I Am: a Revelation [pt.2]

==> for context please read previous post before continuing

 As I began to really understand this, God pointed me back to the verse in Exodus. When asked what name He wanted to be identified as to His people He said "I Am who I Am... tell them I Am has sent you... this is my name to be remembered through the generations" And then things started to snap together... track with me...  

In nearly all languages there are questions of identity. "Who/What/How are you?" questions that warrant responses that begin with a signifier "I am..." and finish with whatever the appropriate response is. It is our nature to signify ourselves with these two words, it allows us to show ownership of ourselves... just as God claimed this name for Himself as a signifier to His people. When we say "I Am..." we are also speaking "God is..." 

I realized that the reason my moms statement had stuck in my head and started this whole progression is that she, as an image bearer of God, coupled His name "I Am" with a characteristic that directly assaults the nature of who He is "...stupid". 

If we as Humans were created to be like God, in His image, the only ones in all creation He blessed to carry a snapshot of what He looks like, then we should speak of ourselves in a way that reflects that. Satan will do anything and everything to take away glory from God and one of his biggest attacks on heaven is the lies he feeds to us. Daily he attacks our identity by heaping un-true signifiers into our thoughts and emotions.  Ugly, Worthless, Alone, Stupid, Ashamed etc.  So here is my challenge to you: Before you speak of yourself with an "I Am.." statement, carefully think about if the words you are about to follow it with reflect the truth you know about God. If you don't know, ask. A friend, a pastor or even me... somebody that can help recognize a lie, uproot it and replace it with truth. Let's take back the identities that are stolen from us daily... Let's take back "I Am..."

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I Am: a Revelation [pt.1]

It's been a while since I've posted anything here... I suppose it's been a bit of an internal dry season... God has been so good to not lay too many heavy things on me as I have been transitioning into my life living as a full time follower of Christ. (aka... I'm a missionary) After being away from home for 6 months, I was able to go home for a short visit and during that time God started teaching me something. Well, a whole lot of things actually, but this is one that I can share with the masses...  One day I was talking to my mom and she did/said something that was a little off and she followed it with "Oh, I'm stupid..."  And as she said it, God started speaking to my heart. He began by bringing this scripture to my mind

13 But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”

14 God replied to Moses, “I Am Who I Am.[d] Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh,[e] the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.

This is my eternal name,     my name to remember for all generations. (Exodus 3:13-15)

He then followed it by this scripture:

25 God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings[a] in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

27 So God created human beings[b] in his own image.     In the image of God he created them;

    male and female he created them.  (Genesis 1:25-27) And then he began to speak into these verses and as He did, revelation began to flow. You see, we, as humans, were created in the image of God. Each and every one of us was crafted/formed/designed/created uniquely to be image bearers of God. We are all different in our outward appearance, but our physical make-up is all the same when you get down to the core of it. God created us very last in the universe because nothing He had formed up until that point brought even a little bit of who He is to what he can do.  The plants/animals/oceans/land masses/stars/heavens were beautiful and good but not quite right... not fully feeling, thinking, able to enjoy or take in all that He was/is prepared to offer.  So when we look at who we are, we find that we and God are of the same fabric... we are the likeness of the creator of the universe. 

Let that sink in.

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Look at things that are not and call them as though they are.

Dream unreasonably.