I am God's Cabbage Patch Kid!

The Gift of a Decade

It was the 1980s, and there was one thing that I wanted more than any other. Burning with a passion that could not be denied, I begged my new grandparents for THE gift of the decade. 

The Litmus Test 

So ugly they were cute, I wanted a Cabbage Patch Doll (CPD). Not just any doll, I wanted a premi. The crème de la crème of all CPD that premi doll meant that my family “got” me, they accepted me and I would be like any other kid of that era. 

Instead I got one of the last ones in the county, a boy CPD I named Jeremy after some kid I liked in my class. My Grandma searched high and low, and bought one for me and one for my sister. Her persistence to find that toy made it all the more special through the years. 

I still carry that doll around in a sealed bag of “Childhood memorabilia”  It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but in the long run, I did not care, he was mine! 

Nothing New Under the Sun! 

The thing about CPD that was so genius was in the marketing. Each one was different. You “adopted” them and they became yours. 

The funny thing is this was not a new idea. God had it first. 

In Psalms 139 it says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. God made us individually, and intricately. He watched our very cells knit together in an individual pattern. Jeremiah 29:11-13 says God knows the plans He has for us. 

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

We aren't the only creatures He does this with. Each animal may be genetically coded by species and genius, but look closely: no two zebras have the exact same stripe pattern. God’s imagination is endless, just like His love. 

For us, though, God goes beyond just giving us individuality, he gives us purpose. 

We are all creations of God, we are not all are children of God. Salvation through Jesus is the means by which God “adopts” us into His family and His heart’s desire is that every single person comes to be a part of His family, not to perish. 

He loves us, and those he loves he calls. He gives purpose to us. Without purpose there is quality to our lives.

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

The Difference Purpose Can Make

I always say that before I gave my life completely to God I was floating along clinging to driftwood. Now I am being steered and directed aboard a ship, headed where God wants me to go. This is the difference purpose can make. 

We are a family that is a body with many moving parts and each part has a job to do in and for the Kingdom of God. This is why you are so individual. Because there is a work God wants to do through you, and He has tailor made you for this purpose. 

So we were the first Cabbage patch dolls!

God created us, and then He loved us so much He adopted us Himself: into His family. 

Now, when I look at “Jeremy”: my ragged sailor suit wearing, brown headed, dimple cheeked, so-ugly-he-is-cute Cabbage Patch doll, I think, he is just like me and it always makes me smile. 

Question: What toy was your favorite growing up and why?