Growing Into Our Calling

Ella blew out her birthday candles before her guests finished singing. She was hardly concerned with cake or “pin the tail on the donkey” when she had a table full of presents on the other end of the room. She had her eye on a certain present. The wrapping was dull compared to the others. It had no ribbons or bows or sparkle paper, it was wrapped in brown shipping paper and stuck with stamps and postage writing. That present came every year in the same kind of package. It was from Grandma Minnie who lived states away. Ella was her only granddaughter so she made sure to remember every birthday and she always knew just what to send. Ella was especially excited this year, after all, she was ten. Tenth birthdays were a pretty big deal. She was in the double digits now, so it would only make sense that Grandma Minnie would send an even better present for this birthday.

After the cake was cut, Ella’s mother permitted her to begin opening her gifts. Of course she chose to open the gift her grandmother sent in her absence before any other present. Brown paper went flying to expose a tightly taped carton that concealed her prize. She dug into the sticky tape and the box opened with a pop. She peered inside and began ripping out noisy tissue paper. At last she felt cool silky fabric and pulled it from the box’s grip. A beautiful dress adorned with sequences and sparkles and every color in the rainbow emerged. Ella was certain she would be able to perform magic as soon as she tried it on. As she held the dress up, her smile faded into a frown that almost slid off her chin. The dress seemed eight sizes too big! She would never fit into it! Grandma Minnie must have grown old and senile just like everyone else’s grandma! Didn’t she know she was turning ten, not twenty-five? Ella’s frown turned into a whining sob and then a foot stomp. “Honey, what’s wrong?” Ella’s mother asked. “It’s so pretty and I’ll never be able to fit in it!” she bellowed as she let the dress fall and crossed her arms. With a sigh, Ella’s mother reached down and pulled a card from the bottom of the box. Inside, the card read, “Ella, you will grow into this one day I promise. Meanwhile, Very Happy Birthday to my angel, Love always, Grandma Minnie.”

Maybe we don’t all have a Grandma Minnie, but haven’t we all felt like Ella at some point? Like Ella’s dress, we receive beautiful aspirations at times from God, but aren’t we so quick to compare the enormous size of those plans to our small spiritual stature? We find it beautiful that God would call us according to His purpose, yet we also find it unimaginable. We usually think, “How will I ever be able to live up to that? How could I ever fill that role? Doesn’t He know all the things I have done? He must have my plan mixed up with someone else’s.” And we frown almost as much as Ella when we look at all the growing we are going to have to do in order to get into that gift. Why does He give us the gift of a calling that seems so impossible compared to our current situation? The same reason a grandmother would send a dress to a ten year old that was made for an adult- we are expected to grow into it at some point.

Do you think Ella miraculously grew into that dress as soon as the party was over? No. The next day did it fit? No. There will be many Band-Aids, tree climbs, smiles, and broken hearts between Ella’s tenth birthday and the day she is finally able to fully benefit from the gift given to her years earlier. We may have been given a glimpse into the plan God has set for us but there is so much in between that cannot be skipped. It is not about the day we finally “fit” into our role, it is about all the days and nights that get us there and how we handle the gift once we accept it.
Shouldn’t we believe then that God who is gracious enough to call us out of darkness has a purpose for doing so? Would He call us without reason? Would He burden our hearts with a desire for Him without intentions to fulfill them? Romans 8:28 says no! “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Ok, remember Moses? He had almost as many excuses for God as we do. But the Lord overrode every reason Moses had to reject the gift of his calling. “But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Exodus 3:11. Sounds a lot like us doesn’t it? Excuses, excuses, excuses. BUT, no matter how many excuses we come up with, Proverbs 21:30 tells us that, “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.” We will fit in that dress if God has planned it- size is irrelevant.

So the next time we stare at that impossibly huge calling let’s remember that He gave us this gift anticipating our growing into it one day. We may not be expected to fit into it tomorrow, but growth is inevitable if we seek His will earnestly and obey. For those of us to take after Moses, remember how the Lord answered him, “And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain” Exodus 3:12. He is saying that to us now, “Insert your name, I will be with you through this task I have called you for.”

L. Bailey