Our True Identity Is Right at Our Fingertips

Have you ever felt lost, wondering who you are or what your purpose is? It seems like the 21st century has thrown us into a confusing and troubling identity crisis. How do we know who and what we are? Well, I’ve got some great news – or rather, God does – and it’s right at our fingertips.

Take a look at your fingers for a moment. Those intricate swirls and lines, our fingerprints, are unlike anyone else's and started forming during the third month of pregnancy and remain unchanged throughout our lives. Not even identical twins share the same ones. Our fingerprints are one of the very best ways to verify someone's unique identity.

Life throws a lot at us and this fallen world will try to rattle our identity – how we go on after losing a loved one, what life looks like after becoming an empty nester, our physical presentation, or figuring out parenthood. In those frazzled, lost, and confusing moments, there’s comfort in knowing we don’t have to figure out or create our identity; it's already been figured out for us because those fingerprints are a reminder of something incredible: the mark of Jesus’ hand on our life.

We can just look at our fingertips and know: Imago Dei – made in the image of God. It’s all right there. It’s like God’s signature on us, reminding us who we are and to whom we belong. Whether or not we choose to believe in Christ, we can’t escape from whom we came.

Look at what Ephesians 1:3-6 says:

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight: Imago Dei. I don't believe our identity is something we have to build, create, earn, or reconstruct; it's something we graciously and humbly receive. It’s a precious gift from God, rooted in his love and grace, secure and unchangeable when we choose to follow Him.