“It’s good to be me here with you.” You have likely heard this saying over the years as we have gathered together in classrooms and campus meetings and felt the loving presence of a speaker who is greeting us in such a kind way. Recently, as I was pondering this statement it seemed clear there are really two parts. It is good to be me and it is good to be here with you. But what does it mean to be good to be me? Can it be good to be here with you if it isn’t good to be me? What makes it good to be me?
This line of thinking took me back to one of my favorite children’s books, You Are Special. In this book, we are introduced to a group of creatures called the Wemmicks. The Wemmicks enjoy giving stickers to each other: gold stars for the talented, smart, and attractive and gray dots for those that are deemed undesirable or make mistakes. One Wemmick, Punchinello, finds that he gains more and more gray dots from others until he is utterly miserable. While in despair, he meets another Wemmick who has no stars and no dots. None at all. He inquires how this can be and is taken to meet Eli the woodcarver, his creator. As Punchinello spends more time with Eli, he notices his gray dots begin to fall off, and no new ones stick. Punchinello comes to understand that knowing the creator and how deeply he is loved is more important than any esteem or dishonor his fellow Wemmicks can give.
Don’t we easily fall prey to the same? In order for it to truly be good to be me, I must intimately know who my creator is and understand at least a little of His unceasing love for me. I find contentment, peace, and goodness in Him and in His creation, me, when I understand more about Him! Sure, mistakes will still happen, harm will come to me and be caused by me. I’ll deserve plenty of gray dots along the way, and maybe even some gold stars, but what will stick is who I am because of who He is and who He created me to be. A person who is fully known and loved by God the creator for His pleasure and the delight of knowing Him. And I will know it is truly good to be me.
1 John 4:9-10. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.