I created this blog last August because I felt like God had put it on my heart to share my story.

I didn’t necessarily want to start a blog. I was nervous to put my story out there on the Internet for basically the whole world to see at their leisure— and you can read more about my hesitancy in my post all about why I almost didn’t start blogging.

Also, because I can be super indecisive, I couldn’t decide what I wanted to name the blog. I had so many different ideas but it was hard to settle on one.

In the end, I decided to call my blog “Onederfully Created.” At the end of every blog post (as you’ve probably noticed if you’ve been around here for a while now), I remind you, my sweet reader, that you are onederfully created. This unique phrase captures the message of my writing in several ways.

But what exactly does it mean to be onederfully created? What do I mean when I share those words?

I figured it was about time I share my thoughts around the name of my blog. As it turns out, the number “one” has a lot of significance, whether you have one arm, like me, or two.

First of all, we were all created by the one true God. The same God who created you and me created our neighbors, our leaders, our celebrities, our teachers, our friends. Our God is vastly creative. He made each person with beauty and intention and differences. Our differences are such a beautiful thing. Like I tell my kindergarteners, the world sure would be a boring place if we were all exactly the same. And this amazingly creative God never makes mistakes. He is a good Creator.

We were each created by God for one purpose: to love. We love God and we love people. Our worship to Him is a manifestation of our love. You might push back against this idea. A person can have lots of different purposes, and that may be true. But I believe that God wants love to be the one thing at the center of all that we do. I believe love is our one primary purpose as His children, made in His image.

We are all part of the one body of Jesus Christ. The church might be divided into tens of thousands of denominations (yeah… there sure are a lot of denominations) but if you believe in Jesus and love and follow him, your particular denomination isn’t the definition of your faith.

Paul described it this way in 1 Corinthians 12:12-14: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”

In other words, though we all play a different part in the kingdom of God, we still belong to one body. We still work together for one purpose.

We were onederfully created by the one true God, for one purpose, as part of one body, to build up the one kingdom of God.

Yes, the name “onederfully created” does have a lot to do with the fact that I was born with one arm. That’s a piece of my story, and though it’s not the most important piece, it’s certainly a more obvious one. But the phrase “onederfully created” also describes each of our origin. It’s a reminder that we were crafted by an incredible artist with beauty, purpose, and intention.

So sweet friend, I’ll go ahead and end this post like I’ve ended every other one so far: You are onederfully created. Never forget that beautiful truth!

Love,
Becca