Our Purpose...Is It Worth It?

What if your life was only a few weeks long? Could you impact the world in a few weeks? Would your life matter?

This picture has been my Facebook profile picture for the last six months. I am holding baby Amy while on a mission trip to Pignon, Haiti. I first wrote about visiting Amy in my article Cleaning Off the Dirt.

About the time I thought about updating my profile picture, I received word that Amy had passed away. Her situation was too severe and her living conditions too poor. Since that time, I haven't wanted to change my profile picture as it seemed I would be saying a final good-bye to Amy.

I looked at her picture this week and remembered the day we visited her. I realized Amy's life had purpose. She only lived a few weeks in a hut in rural Haiti; no worldy success, no platform, no awards, and no accolades.

BUT...

Amy needed the special things that a newborn requires - things like baby formula and preemie sized clothing. These needs led her uncle to walk the many miles to the orphanage run by my friends. His trips to the orphanage caused my friends to then visit him in his home. That visit led to the uncle accepting Christ as His Savior. Amy's presence on earth, although brief, was instrumental in another soul receiving eternal life. Many of us who've lived for decades can't make such a claim regarding our own selves.

What if...God created Amy for the sole reason of helping the uncle receive salvation? Is it enough? Is it worth it? Absolutely.

Don't count Amy among the unfortunate. She's no longer hungry and malnourished. She is no longer wet and irritated from no diaper. She is satisfied and content, wrapped in the arms of Jesus. She is blessed as one who lived her life as God called her to, even though she was never old enough to understand that during her short time here.

"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. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you" (Psalm 139:13-18).