“You’re not even black – WHITE GIRL!’’ taunted my older dark-skinned cousin. Everyone in the room burst out laughing as my cousin proudly branded me the new ‘nickname’ that would haunt me for years. Those two words would send me into a convulsion of tears and feelings of a misfit.

At the age of five is when I first questioned my identity. It was the first time I noticed I didn’t look like the rest of my family.  My hair texture and skin color was different. They argued and complained over who would comb my hair because they didn’t know what to do with it. I was different. I didn’t belong. Was this really my family or did I belong to another family that didn’t want me?

For decades, I wrestled with the inner turmoil of a mistaken identity. I wanted coarse hair and dark skin so I could have a sense of belonging and identity.  And although that ‘nickname’ was the genesis of my insecurities, I don’t fault my family – they didn’t know. The FACTS were my hair texture and skin color was different than theirs; but the TRUTH was I belonged and I mattered! GOD’S TRUTH – I WAS CHOSEN.

From my mother’s womb I was chosen. My skin color, my hair texture – from the sparkle in my eyes to my voluptuous derriere (LOL) – I was chosen.  His Chosen Treasure – with His image ingrained and stamped on the very fibers of my being. I belong.

He placed in me hidden treasures of my purpose, potential and power.  I had to dig through all the layers of false identities and labels bestowed on me by myself and others. Those chosen treasures aren’t just in me, they are in you too.  We were chosen at birth to bear an undeniable and undiminishable seal of God. We are chosen and sealed with His authentic purpose and power. 

While in the conundrums and pits of everyday living, we can easily lose sight of those treasures and focus on the facts of life; but His TRUTH is that His purpose preserves us. When we trust God with the layers of our life, we can discover the buried treasures of our TRUE identity and who we are purposed to be – His Treasured Possession. Deuteronomy 14:2B NIV  

My favorite poem by Marianne Williamson states it best, “Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually who are not to be? You are a child of [the Living] God.” YOU ARE CHOSEN!