An elderly church member living in an aged-care hostel was visited by a well-meaning relative.  He’s into New Age stuff and asked her whether she had yet ‘discovered her true self’.  He suggested that with time on her hands she should learn some meditation techniques and come to terms with her inner identity?  She told me about it later and remarked with some indignation, “Why should I bother with that, I know who I am!  I’m a child of the King.”  I was delighted and encouraged.  Humanly speaking this lady is close to the end of her earthly journey.  Life has often been far from easy for her and even now she constantly battles failing health.  Yet, she has this vision of the Lord God as the King of the Universe and of herself as one of His children.  It struck me that I was sitting there talking to a princess.

For some folk their identity is a perplexing question.  ‘Problem is that we can answer the question of who we are in various ways and at various levels.  At one level I can answer the question, “Who am I?” by stating that I am a male Aussie, of Dutch ancestry, a baby boomer who grew up on the farm, learned a trade, spent some years as a computer programmer and then responded to God’s call to the Gospel ministry.  But that tells you more about what I am than who I am.  So, who am I really?

To help you understand who I am I would need to describe to you my Dad, from whom I inherited half of my chromosomes… and I would need to tell you about my Mum from whom I inherited the other half of the chromosomes that identify John Westendorp.  Even then the picture of my identity would not be complete.  It would help you further if you knew my sister and my two brothers… the siblings with whom I interacted as a child and who played an important role in making me who I am.

In later years I began to gain an even bigger picture of who I am.  Before his death my father wrote down some of the recollections of his early years – about growing up during the Great Depression and his experiences during World War II.  Those writings have given me some glimpses of the forces that were at work shaping my family and my destiny.  My maternal grandfather wrote more extensively about his family’s history and I began to understand even more clearly the way God providentially brought me into a God-honouring family.  When my brother went to work and traced our genealogy back into the 1700s that enriched even further my understanding of who I am.

I mention all this to highlight that our identity is a complex matter.  It includes the genes that made up the cells of our bodies at our conception; it includes the nurture and training by our parents, the relationships with our siblings and peers, as well as all the various experiences that make us what we are today.  In one respect identity is simple – spend a day with me and you soon know who I am.  In another respect it’s extremely complex –my wife of 14 years, still has days where she has trouble understanding me.

It’s obvious from what I’ve just said how important family is for our identity.  That leaves me sad and fearful about the struggle many today will have with their identity.  Stepmothers and half-brothers, broken homes and full time childcare institutions – these are the memorable factors that shape many lives today.  If persons adopted into loving and stable homes already tend to have identity crises, what hope is there for those growing up in some of today’s fragmented and dysfunctional families?  One can only hope that through faith in Jesus they may yet come to see themselves as princes and princesses... children of the King.

And that’s just the point.  My elderly friend in the aged-care hostel didn’t need years of meditation to come to terms with who she is.  She didn’t need endless hours of psycho-analysis to discover her identity.  The point is that when we come into a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus that not only puts into proper perspective for us who God really is... it also does wonders for our self-understanding,  We who believe in Jesus have been adopted into God’s family.  That makes us sons and daughters of the King.

John Westendorp