Whose Am I?  These are two pivotal questions that Ellie, a character in one of Charles Martin’s Murph Shepherd novels, asks of Murph.  Ellie, a lonely, angry, lost teenager, seeks Shepherd to answer these important questions. 

Shepherd is a “people finder.”  He makes the following observations about these two questions: “In my life, in my strange line of work, I’d discovered that we as people can’t answer the first until someone else answers the second… 

In Eden, we walked in the cool of the evening with a Father who, by the very nature of the conversations and time spent together, answered our heart’s cry.  It was the product of relationship.  But out here, somewhere east or west of the Garden, beyond the shadow of the fiery walls, we have trouble hearing what He’s saying.  And even when we do, we have trouble believing Him.  So we wrestle and search.” (The Water Keeper by Charles Martin, Thomas Nelson-Harper Collins Christian Publishing, Inc, 2021, p. 183)

Ellie is searching for the answers to these questions.  She is not alone.  She is joined by multitudes of people of all shapes, sizes and ages.  Looking, searching for a place of belonging.  Even those who feel secure with the answers sometime falter and doubt-not listening to the words the Father speaks to us.  Not working on that so important relationship.

“You are mine,” says the Lord.  You are the children of God!  You are the children of a God who loves you unconditionally-all the time-in all situations-in every place that you may wander.  Listen for His voice.  Grab on to His Hand.  Follow in His path and know that you are His.

Terri