Camels or the “ship of the deserts” are smart animals. Before going on a long journey, they ‘pack’ their bodies with enough water to last the journey. And so it is with human beings! Before we leave to a particular place, we ‘pack’ our bags with all that is needed. Going to a beach? We pack our bags with sun screen, beach wear, beach ball, towels, etc. Or going to a hill station? Our bags are packed with woolen clothes, socks, head gear etc. Now let’s take the reverse of this. Assuming that I give you a bag that is fully packed, will you not be able to make a fairly reasonable guess of where it was intended for by looking through its contents? If man can pack his bag depending on his purpose, would not God ‘pack’ us with gifts, talents, experiences and desires for HIS purpose?

Time and again from the Bible, God tells us that each one of us is made unique in His image!

“Before your mother conceived you, I knew you!” “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” God has ‘packed’ us with all that He knew was needed for us to bring glory to His name.

So, What’s in your bag? Two questions we need to ask ourselves. Have I opened my bag and identified what inbuilt qualities God has ingrained in me? And if I have I done that, have I thanked Him for that and with full contentment accepted His gifts and used it for His glory?

Maybe you are at a crucial crossroad in life not knowing what the future holds in terms of which line of work or study you should choose. Take some time off to think about your past. From your earliest childhood memories until now, what activities or work caught your attention the most? Or you enjoyed doing it so much that you never realized time go by? Or made you think about it so much that sometimes your mind was filled with it that it disturbed your sleep?

Here are some examples: did you enjoy playing with jigsaw puzzles or lego as a kid? Or was math class your favorite in school that numbers fascinated you? While playing cricket with your friends, did “captain-ship” come to you naturally and you enjoyed setting thefieldandrotatingthebowlers? How about art class in school? Did the mixing of the paints giving forth new colors have you in awe? And when kids of your age where playing computer games, were you writing programs in C or C++, or made a mini movie using your dads’ outdated digital camera?

Does this sound silly to you? Look at some examples from the Bible: Shepherd David knew how to protect his sheep from the lion and the bear. Years later, King David developed some of the best war strategies to protect the nation of Israel from its enemies. Paul, or Saul was a zealous Pharisee who persecuted the church. But after his conversion, with his in depth knowledge of the Word of God which was taught to him by Gamaliel and also from his personal study of the scriptures, Paul wrote letters which defines our theology today. Moses, the prince of Egypt could not remain silent when an Egyptian mistreated a Hebrew, that he killed him. When the Midianites harassed the daughters of Jethro, Moses intervened and chased them off. His heart beat for justice and equality that whenever he saw injustice, he couldn’t remain silent. Isn’t it amazing to observe that when God had to choose a man to pass on the 10 commandments, the Holy and Just law of God, He chose Moses!