Yah Loves Variety

I was doing some self-evaluation recently. Just running through the things that seem to define me; the hobbies and actions that make up who I think I am. I started to jot down the things that I find beautiful and have passion for and think that I have at least a small talent in. Things like music, photography, drawing, and gardening. 

Then as I was on my way to work, I heard a passage of scripture that really got me thinking about those particular passions of mine and where they came from. The verse was John 3:27:

“Yochanan answered, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from Heaven.”

This verse sent me on a rollercoaster of thoughts about who we are and the abilities that we have and where they come from. I started from the beginning, literally. Genesis and the creation account. We see Yah created everything. What we don’t ever get a sense of, simply because it’s recorded so matter of factly, is the way that everything worked so perfectly together. How everything from the sun and moon to the grass; they each perform a specific function that all effect each other and work together. Everything is so precisely calculated and everything has a purpose, as part of the whole and as the individual. 

Well, it didn’t take me long to come across something that really got my noodle baking.

“⁷ Then Adonai, God, formed a person from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, so that he became a living being.” –Genesis 2:7

The second part of this verse is the one that really caught my attention. Yah breathed life into man. To me, that is a clear statement that our very being is connected to The Creator Himself. A part of Him lives within every living man and woman. This Creator who made everything with a purpose as a part of the whole and in the individual, left His breath as the source for our very existence.  So does it not make sense that the very desires and passions and interest that each one of us has are specific attributes of YHVH? I mean, really look at it. We see from the very first chapter that Yah is the first painter, architect, mathematician, musician (I mean, He created sound!), gardener, caregiver, scientist (since He created it), and every other attribute that there is! 

This really blew my mind and I am not entirely sure if I am articulating it correctly, but what a thought! I mean, look how much time we spent in high school warring with all the other people who didn’t see things the way we see them. In reality, we all need to have an understanding of where our passions came from. His purpose for them in our lives are to work together so we can see the complete picture!  That is why fellowship is so important! Our hearts and minds are geared to certain ways of thinking. Mine is in the art and the beauty of everything my Yah has created. While I know many people who can only see the black and white and analytical side of things. When we come together, our spirits can understand those things more through our combined perspective!

We must be careful not to lean on our own understanding, however. I mean, these attributes of His very being were given to us. Who are we to use them for our own ends? We did nothing to earn them, just as we did nothing to earn His love. Pride was the downfall. What do we have to be proud of?

“After all, what makes you so special? What do you have that you didn’t receive as a gift? And if in fact it was a gift, why do you boast as if it weren’t?” -1 Corinthians 4:7

All too often in my own walk, I lose track of where my gifts came from and start focusing on how great I am at said gift. Yah is always swift to pull the rug out from under my feet. And even though it sucks when it happens, I am grateful in retrospect that He refuses to let me use His breath for my own means. Many times I prayed that the second what I do stops being a ministry, that He would strip it from me. He has been faithful to that, and I praise Him for it. I had writers block for close to four years because I started just diving in to how I wanted things to be. I stopped focusing on just letting Him move through me and started trying to do it the way I saw fit. I am thankful for that now, even though at the time my world seemed to be falling apart.

I want every breath to be given back. I want to work with the spirit in those who see things in a different narrative in order to see the whole picture. We are truly wondrous creations that we have the indwelling of the very attributes of our Creator.  We can do so much to help others to see the completed masterpiece of who our Abba is. That is one of the many reasons we are called to help one another repeatedly throughout Scripture.

“As each one has received some spiritual gift, he should use it to serve others, like good managers of God’s many-sided grace —” -1 Peter 4:10

We are nothing without Him. Everything we have is Him. We have been given free will to see it out to our own ends, but in the end, our breath is going back to Him one way or the other. I would much rather offer it in thanks than have it pulled from my lungs. 

“So I fill my lungs with every breathe that comes from You. The taste is sweet and the sensation is something new.” – I wrote this for my wife some time ago. I felt compelled to offer it to Abba here in light of the revelation He has placed on my heart.

One Love,

Albert C. Coble