“Fearfully and Wonderfully” 

Dear Faith Family, 

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well, (Psalm 139:46). 

Apparently, I have a fascination with how things are made.  And one of the ways that you can find out how things are made is to unmake them.  You know, if you carefully dismantle something you can see how it was made. 

Unfortunately, I discovered that chainsaws come complete with a built-in wood magnet.  I know, right?!  Like, who knew that wood could even be attracted to a magnet?  Are you aware that hypothetically if you set your chainsaw on the ground near a, oh let’s say for hypothetical purposes, near a twenty-to-thirty-foot white oak trunk.  And, if you cut through the white oak trunk almost completely.  And if you use wedges to drop the tree in a particular direction.  And you set, say, an Echo cs-590 chainsaw in the opposite direction.  The magnet in the chainsaw is so strong that against the hypothetical odds, the tree trunk will fall on the chainsaw?!  Who knew? 

What’s cool is that I discovered some new things about the inner workings of an Echo chainsaw.  One of the things that I discovered is that chainsaws are not as strong as white oak tree trunks.  Another?  Chainsaws don’t run well when dismantled.  One more?  Chainsaws don’t heal themselves!   

On the other hand, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, King David used two words to describe the making of a human being.  Those words?  Fearfully and wonderfully.  Fearfully refers to the sense of awe that captured David’s attention.  He was amazed with the creation of a person – from an unformed substance to being knit together in the mother’s womb.  The idea of a thinking, choosing, feeling, communicating person in the image of Almighty God is awe inspiring. 

Wonderfully refers to something different, something set apart, something distinct.  Not only are we hand woven above / different than all the rest of creation, but we are also distinctly different than the next person – with even distinct fingerprints to match our distinct DNA.  We’re even better than a chainsaw.  Our bodies are capable of healing! 

So, here’s the question.  Knowing that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, so what?  Like what should we do with that information?  Well, what did David do under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?  “I praise you.”  Why not pause whatever you’re doing at the moment and praise?  Sing a song of praise to God.  Pray a prayer of praise to God.  Marvel at His awesomeness and how wonderful He is as reflected in the creation of you! 

Praising, 
Pastor Karl