In Five days time we celebrate the conversion of St Paul.

One of the key things to remember about Paul was that he was a very very bad man and hated all Christians.

He was called Saul and had held the jackets of the men that stoned St Stephen to death. He was probably quite young when this happened. Things like that shape us when we are young.

He is described in acts 9 thus.

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Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.

He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
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So Pauls/Sauls intent is to go to the synagogues and ask them to hand over Christians and bring them to Jerusalem.

This guy is like the leader of isis, or Boko Haram, he is going round picking up Christians and handing them over to be killed.

For me this is one of the core things in the bible, nobody is beyond gods reach, nobody is unreachable, or unchangeable.

Saul see’s himself as the scourge of christianity. But that is not how god saw him.

God does not see us as we see ourselves. Our hearts are wrapped up in all the things life can “nurture” us into, victims of circumstance, products of our environment.

He see’s our very core, our nature, the centre of our heart. Because he made that heart, for a reason.

Sometimes in life, we see ourselves as something, hopelessly bad, unworthy.

However Saul showed us that he can unlock in us things we never imagined, and that the principle that we must never judge people as lesser, or lower, lacking or unworthy?

Well we should do the same for ourselves…

Because only God knows our true potential and he has a plan and that plan includes everything he made in you.

You fit perfectly into his puzzle, and no other piece will fit better than you.
You are as special as any other piece, and without you?

Ever seen a puzzle missing a piece?