Tuesday, May 6, 2008

I'm God's Peculiar Piece of Art

Check out the new look!

I haven't blogged often in the past, but I hope to rectify that. My life is easing somewhat, and my muse has returned home. I don't know where she fled to in the past year and a half. Probably Fiji. She came back with an incredible tan a renewed love of sweet potatoes.

But I digress.

I've spent a few days polishing up my main blog. (Kinda sounds like "my main squeeze." He could do with a bit of polishing up, too!)

ADD has kicked in. Sorry about that.

Where was I? Oh, the new blog. Yes, gone is the feather pen in hand graphic behind the words. I loved it, even though it was a man's hand. But, to celebrate my new found muse, and to step into the new century, I thought a kicky graphic would be the thing. What thing? THE thing. THE thing to get me out of my writing funk. THE thing to remind me that I'm still a hot chick and not a 53-year-old grandmother who colors her hair and rubs linement on her knees. THE thing to help me reconnect with my readers and writing friends.

How can a graphic do all that?

I went on a hunt for "free blog header graphics." I didn't have to search far before I found this one.

The image was sharper, but I fuzzied it up so my title would show. It spoke to me right away. It told my whole life, my hopes and dreams, my quirks, my desires, my whole being in this one piece of art. What I saw was a lot of colorful, unique circles in boxes. This represented the people around me. All have thier own styles. All are beautiful. All are neatly contained in their own space. That's a good thing. I'm not saying they shouldn't be in their squares. I, however, am the diamond off to the side. The diamond in a box of my own. I'm the thinker off-center. The one who makes her own rules. I may conform to a certain extent, as in the seventies when I caved in to bell-bottom jeans and waist-length hair. Or more recently when I pierced my ears on a dare. I believe I was forty at the time. But inside, I'm Kathy. My mother often said that I march to a different drummer. I hear my own tunes -- sometimes a jazz ensemble while everyone else is listening to Mozart.

God created me uniquely His. He gave me a singularity all my own. He made me a diamond in the rough, off center with just enough shine so people will know that He did it.

We all have pieces of art that speak to us. You may be the Norman Rockwell -- the solid piece of Americana with a splash of humor. You may be the Thomas Kinkaid -- the beautiful still life with a sparkle of light. You may be the Picasso -- your nose in the place where your ear should be.

I say all of this, not only to introduce my blog's new look, but to remind us that we are all uniquely God's. Made up of different DNA and bits of genetic material to be used by Him for His good purpose. I like to think of myself as peculiar. 1 Peter 2:9 says we are His "peculiar people" according to the King James Bible. Other versions say this:

  • His own special people (NKJV)
  • you are God's very own (TLB)
  • a people belonging to God (NIV)
  • a people for God's own possession (NAS)

Wow! All you diamonds set apart -- rejoice! We are God's special people, His very own.