We Are Marvelously Made!

PSALM 139: 13-16  (The Message)

13 -16 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!  You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.

PSALM 139:14

Body and soul, I am marvelously made! (The Message)

Years ago a special new friend gave me a beautiful mug with Psalm 139:14 etched on it. She had no way of knowing that verse would touch my heart and begin a new season in my life. I have found that God often works this way, using ordinary people to touch me in extraordinary ways. 

I had never thought of myself as being marvelously or wonderfully made. Sometimes I admit I thought of myself as being fearfully made, as in, I could frighten someone with my looks. I looked in the mirror and always found faults with any number of my physical traits.

For the past decade I have dealt with numerous medical issues, making it even more difficult to believe “I am marvelously made!” One day as I was drinking my morning coffee I looked at the verse, perhaps really seeing it for the first time. I read it aloud; I wrote it in my journal, more importantly I started to write it in my heart.  This was no instantaneous epiphany; I still had numerous doubts about my self-worth but I began to see a glimmer of God’s marvelous creation.

One of the marvelous things about living for more than half a century is the amount of past experiences I can draw from to continue to grow in God’s ways.  For instance, at a retreat one of the speakers spoke about low self-esteem being like a slap in the face to God. Here is this marvelous gift of life God gives to me and I tell Him it’s not good enough. Wow! That’s when I learned low self-esteem had nothing to do with humility. I went to the Lord with tears of shame and left with tears of joy, enjoying His forgiveness and His wisdom.

Does this mean I never have self-doubts? Not at all! This means I live each day knowing I can go to the Scriptures and remind myself that I am marvelously made with a purpose ordained by the Creator of the Universe. When I do this I see each day as a gift from God, one to be enjoyed not scrutinized.

Thank you God for Your marvelous wisdom that allows me accept me as I am.