I have two friends I want to tell you about today: Janna and Joanna.  Janna has been my friend since her birth (I’m 2 months older). Joanna doesn’t know that I’m alive and resides on a little farm outside of Waco, Texas, but assuming she actually knew of my existence and lived in North Dakota, I just know we’d be pals.

Both of my friends are freakishly talented.

My friend Janna hasn’t met a sport that she can’t excel at, can whip up a mouth-watering meal at a moment’s notice, can advise you on what over-the-counter-medication you should purchase when it feels like your head is about to explode (she’s a smarty pants pharmacist), and she can bring the house down when she belts out Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’.

My friend Joanna introduced the world to the word shiplap, has won over millions of fans with her farmhouse designs, has two best-selling cookbooks under her belt, grows chicken, goats, puppies, herbs, and little humans on her farm, and has turned young kiddos into horticulturists with her children’s book, We Are the Gardeners.

Both of these women are sooo gifted, that it sometimes makes we wonder if God was feeling a little uninspired the day he created me.  I have gifts, of course: I can string words together and am tall enough to scrape off the sticky things my son finds to shoot up to the ceiling of our home.  But I don’t have the type of skills that mesmerize a crowd, or have you whispering to your bestie, “Wow, I wish I could do that!” I’m um…a pretty normal person.

Maybe you can relate?

It’s easy to see the local talent show, the highlight reels on social media, or your multi-talented friend and feel a little less than.  It’s hard not to covet the talents and skills your neighbor may have.  But there is a verse in the Bible that testifies that, indeed, God was not lacking inspiration the day he created me…and you. 

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.  (Psalms 139:13-14)

You are an incredible creation made by the God of the universe!  I may need Jimmy Don to etch those verses on a metal sign, as I tend to forget that when I see the Jannas and Joannas of the world.  Let’s remember those verses as we scroll through our social media feeds and hang up those creative, adorable Christmas cards that show up in our mailboxes this time of year. 

And as for my friends, Janna and Joanna?  Well, I’ll never have the level of expertise that they do, but that’s OK.  They don’t have the level of expertise that I have.  (I doubt they can scrape things off their ceilings without standing on a chair.) We can still be friends.  I will cheer them on in 2020 and I know that they’ll be cheering me on in 2020.  That is of course, assuming Joanna knew that I existed. 😊

Merry Christmas, friends!

-Sally