I recently bought a sleeping platform for my car, as I’d like to try some car camping. When I looked into buying a commercially made platform, the price was lots more than I wanted to pay, so I looked at some local online markets. I came across a mechanical engineer dude who designed and fabricated his own sleeping platform that would fit very nicely in my car. The price was right, and I was happy to see how well he had constructed it with snug measurements, practical tie-downs and sturdy support. His craftsmanship was spectacular, so I bought it!
Thinking about how well my sleeping platform is made has caused me to reflect on how God has fearfully and wonderfully designed each of us. This whole idea comes from Psalm 139:14, and we would be wise to look at this verse in a few different translations:
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. (NLT)
I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way. What you have done is wonderful. I know this very well. (NCV)
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. (NASB)
I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly you know me, Lord! (The Passion)
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! (The Message)
Have you thought about how very wonderfully you are made? If you pause to reflect on this, it could blow your mind! Consider all the things that you can do, of course, some of them better than others.
As an example, in my fifty-plus years of living, I’ve tried a wide swath of things: weightlifting, learning foreign languages, water skiing, calculus, painting, database creation, snowboarding, gardening, water polo, circuit board construction, auto repairs and maintenance, mountain biking, Pilates, videography, cooking, pickleball and graduate studies in history, to name a few! No doubt that some of these attempts were a total bust, and I’m very happy to put them in the one-and-done column. At the same time, some of these activities were very enjoyable, and I’ve kept up with them to varying degrees. Furthermore, I’ve become extremely good at a number of these things, having discovered some of the particular talents that God has put in me!
At our core is the distinct design that God put in us, along with a set of amazing talents that—with a little bit of effort—can yield some great outcomes! To complement these, we also have the potential to explore a wide range of experiences, and we have the free will to choose what we like and reject what isn’t agreeable to us.
As a final exclamation point to God’s phenomenal design in us, we are also immeasurably beautiful and handsome—without external enhancements. This is true for each of us for the simple reason that we are made in the image of God, sculpted and distinctly crafted to reflect our heavenly Father. Truly, we are fearfully and wonderfully made!
