Today, I am writing to tell you that it is time for this blog to be renamed. This name is not a new name. As a matter of fact, it is the name that it was given when I first started sharing my writing publicly many years ago when I was in middle school.

“Peculiar Treasures”.

I changed the name about three years ago when I felt like the name probably didn’t really make sense to people. So I went with the name “redeeming brokenness”. I have been thinking about this name, and I don’t really feel like I want that idea to be the theme of my writing. That is only an aspect of what I want to share here. Yes, God has redeemed SO many messed up parts of my life, and I want to continue to be honest about the ways that I struggle and how God brings me through those trials. BUT that is not the center of who God made me to be. I do not think the Christian life is meant to be continually focused on how broken we are, because as Christians we actually aren’t broken anymore, even though it seems like that sometimes.  We are made NEW. Wholly & completely new by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sins. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it says “So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away-look, what is new has come!”. We are no longer defined by who we are, by our mistakes, and insecurities, for God says that we are made new! We still struggle with some of those things, because they are remnants of our former self, so we must DECLARE who God says we are in order to overcome the lies the enemy tries speak to us to tempt us to be someone we are not.

Now, I am going back to this blog’s former name, because I feel it better defines what God has called me to be, and even called you to be (also I just LOVE the word “peculiar”! It’s so fun!!).

This phrase has a lot of meaning for me, for several reasons, which I am hoping you will let me share with you!

(If you keep reading, that means you’re letting me share with you, and wow thanks so much for reading! You are so SWEET *lollipop emoji* or *icecream emoji*, whichever you prefer).

I first came across this phrase in… (get ready)… yes, you guessed it… A BOOK! One of my favorite characters, Christy Miller, was beautifully brought to life by Robin Jones Gunn. This was a girl that I could relate to. I started reading these books when I was 14, just like Christy (and since there was a picture of a boy and girl walking together on the beach on the cover, my mom OF COURSEEE had to read it first. Which I just think is hilarious, but I am so glad she read them because we got to share our love for these beautiful stories *sparkle emoji*).

Anyways, Gunn starts off on the sandy beaches of New Port Beach, California. In this book, Christy is struggling with her body image, fitting in, figuring out who she is, and slowly discovering her need for a Savior. I basically grew up with Christy, as she started high school, went off to college, figured out her calling, got married, and had children (though I haven’t experienced those last two, yet, haha). I learned from her experience what love looks like in friendships, romantic relationships, and with family members. I cried with her when she realized life would be different then how she imagined, because her friends grew up and moved far away, and marriage was sometimes lonely, or when she struggled with communicating the insecurities or fears that were slowly eating away at her sanity. She even inspired me and encouraged me to make the promise to stay pure until marriage… and to write letters to the person I marry someday (if that’s in God’s will), as well as pray for him. The point is, I totally got Christy. So much of her confusions, joys, questions, fears, and experiences have been my very own. Her story, though fictional, made me feel like I wasn’t alone and also constantly reminded me of how my relationship with God is so important to be able to stay confident in who and whose I am.

When Christy was in highschool, she became friends with this wackadoodle, spontaneous, fun, crazy girl named Katie Weldon. The verse in Exodus 19:5 became a key part of their friendship, and is a verse that has been engraved on my heart ever since the moment I read it. It goes like this: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine”. I am not usually one to like the King James Version, but wowww, the “ye”s and “unto”s and “for all”s make this passage seem so ancient and important. It feels like I am reading an urgent calling or command written by a king of old. Which, if you think about it, I really am. This passage is a message from God, the King of kings, to His people Israel. This is also the only version that uses the wording “peculiar treasure”. Other versions say “my very own people” or “my possession”.

A plain translation of this verse would say, if you obey me, you will be my chosen people. I am not a Jew, so I am not apart of this covenant that is spoken of, but when Christ came, a new covenant was made. I am apart of that, and because I love God, I choose to obey Him, and therefore I am a peculiar treasure. This phrase is what Christy and Katie called each other, and I took it as my own name, and bestowed the name upon many friends over the years as well.  It reminds me of who I am and what it means to be a believer. You see, the definition of peculiar is “strange or odd” or “particular; special”. All my life, I have felt like my beliefs or the disciplines I followed, or things I said, made me kind of weird. Which they did. Even outside of my Christian beliefs and practices, I have always been a book lover and nerdy sort of girl, so that in itself also set me apart for a lot of my childhood. But, this reminded me that as a Christian, I won’t fit into this world, because I was not made to blend in. I was made to be a light to the nations, just like the people of Israel. As are you, if you believe in Christ. I am a strange, odd, and special valuable treasure, and I am chosen by God.

That is what I want my writing to reflect. I want my writing to be a light to the world, or at least the few people that read it. I want it to still definitely show how God has redeemed my brokenness, but ultimately I want it to remind people of who God says they are and what He has called them to be through relationship with Him. That is what I want my life to be about.

So Peculiar Treasures, thank you for reading this, and if you are interested in reading the books I shared about here’s a link to the author’s website!

https://bookshop.robingunn.com/collections/collections

P.S.

Here’s the cover of the first book that I brought home from the library! My mom was very concerned, haha! The books covers have been updated a lot since they first came out, so they don’t look like this anymore.