What if I wern't Me?
Who would I want to be if I weren’t me? By that I mean, if I could change whatever I wanted to about me—like some ultimate extreme makeover—what would I change?
 I was thinking about that the other day. Then I wondered if it could be possible for God to have worked it so that as He was mixing up your DNA He could consult you on what you wanted.
Of course there are two problems with that. You probably wouldn’t end up looking and being a bit like your parents (is that a problem?), which is a part of the genetic process. And you don’t really exist until the DNA locks into place, so how could you order it if you aren’t there?
Forget the problems. Some things I would change are obvious. Movie-star looks would be good. The ability to make money would be helpful—to give away to good causes, of course. (How does support of Mr Ferrari, the Italian motor-vehicle manufacturer, rate as a good cause?) Athletic success, perhaps?
About then I began to wonder why I’d gone for those kinds of things. They seemed a bit shallow. No, they were a lot shallow.
She who loves me wanders in as I’m thinking about this, so I ask for her input.
I ask her what she would like to see changed in me. The conversation went something like this:
“If you wanted to give me an extreme makeover, inside and out, what would you change?”
I’m imagining being bandaged like a mummy for six months to recover from what she’s about to suggest. There’s a pause, then . . .
“I love you as you are.”
“Oh. Really?”
“Really.”
I begin to list off some of the things she might like to consider that should be changed. She stops me.
“If you did all that, you might become someone else and I would lose you. I don’t want to do that.”
That’s when it clicked about God and the fact that He loves us as we are. Our uniqueness is part of His creativity. Yes, He is keen to do an extreme makeover on our hearts—turning them to Him. That’s actually a demonstration of His love.
Any other makeover might change us into someone else. He doesn’t want to lose us.
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Bruce Manners (left) is senior pastor of
the Avondale College church.