God Has a Built-in Purpose for Everything

A flurry of articles featured some amazing and totally unexpected uses of bio material – material that has long been written off as useless and fit only for destruction. For instance, consider a new super-strong material called “shrilk.” It is made from the discarded shells of shrimp and waste fibers from silk production. It’s as strong as an aluminum alloy, but only half as dense and far cheaper to manufacture. Plus it has the additional advantage of being biodegradable. This makes it perfect for medical purposes such as high-tension suturing and as scaffolding for tissue regeneration. It is equally suitable for temporary containers like garbage bags, grocery bags, and mail-packing material. 

Consider also the many applications that scientists found for algae. You know, the green stuff whose blooms starve lakes of oxygen and kill fish by the thousands. It’s a terrible nuisance, right? Not necessarily. Some scientific studies have discovered that the cellulose produced by a bacterial form of algae can be used for a new material called “nanocellulose.” Nanocellulose is far stronger than steel and may one day be used for making automobiles, jet aircraft wings, and buildings. Algae, which can be grown in either saline water or waste water, has already proven itself as an abundant and inexpensive bio-fuel. In fact, its proponents boast that algae yields 10 to 100 times more fuel than other bio-fuel sources like corn and soy beans. This is all the more bewildering for something that we’ve condemned so long as a blight and a threat to earth’s ecosystems.

But these are only two of many examples of how everything created by God is good and purposeful. No one should consider anything created by God as useless or worthless (1 Timothy 4:4). 

If this is true of the discarded shells of crustaceans and the slimy algae of our lakes and ponds, then how much more is it true of human beings created in God’s own image? No child of God should ever feel that he or she is useless and has no value or purpose in life. 

True, not all of us have yet found that purpose or yet discovered the gifts and talents which God has invested in us to serve humanity. Many of us are “discoveries in waiting” and are still on that quest to find our niche in life and our place in this world. 

But rather than stumble in the darkness and rely exclusively on trial and error, why not seek the God who made us and knows us infinitely better than we know ourselves? He has a plan and purpose for your life and understands your inestimable value. Turn to Him. Run into His arms and experience the deep, deep love He has for you. Consider David’s words in the Psalms. 

“O Lord, you have examined my heart, and know everything about me. …You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!” (Psalm 139:1, 13-18) 

PRAYER: 

Dear Father in heaven, into Your capable and loving hands I place myself and my future. I believe You know far more about me than I know about myself. I believe You have a purpose for my life. Please have Your way in my life and fulfill Your purpose in me. Amen.