Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

We just finished celebrating my son's 15th birthday yesterday. I love celebrating him, because I can remind him especially on the day of his birth, how wonderful he was made (but I tell him this all the time anyway). Because of some of his awkwardness with his autism, kids that don't understand him will bully him at school and then he struggles with his value of worth and identity in Christ.

I don't like to think of self-esteem as an important goal for people to focus on, as I think it is a humanistic point of view that values self more than God. I do, however, think everyone should have a healthy view of who we are and how we are seen in God's eyes. In fact on Day 6 of God's creation, man was the only one of all of his creations that He said was "Very good." Of course there are ramifications of sin after the Garden in which I can expound on later and I won't get into all of that here in this post.

Ever think you're not special? That you might be worthless?  That's what the Enemy of God would have you think. You don't have to go further than Psalm 139 to be proven wrong:
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days written for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (13-16, NIV)

 

As I think of the intricacies of a tapestry being woven and well thought out by the designer, I can't help but think how much joy it must have brought God to design and weave each one of us. And He has known us before we were formed... how awesome is that. Don't we struggle on this earth to want people to understand and really know us? Our God does! And He is with us and mighty to save. He takes great delight in us, quiets us with his love and rejoices over us with singing! (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV)