"... I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
My father-in-law is an accomplished cabinetmaker. A craftsman of utmost excellence. I have had the privilege of working by his side on some projects he's done for our home. His concentration, attention to detail, commitment to quality, high standards are all woven into each step of his pieces. I've watched his worn, beaten hands create smooth finishes on rich walnut. Watched them measure and remeasure, saw and re-saw until he gets a fit just right. And I've gotten to hold those warm, strong hands in moments of tenderness between us.
When people think of him making something and describe it as "skillfully made," they are really describing him, the maker, not the thing he made. The object is not "skillful" but because the one who made it was, that quality becomes inherent in the created thing.
So in this verse where "fearfully" and "wonderfully" are adverbs that describe the verb "made," is it also possible that these words are not describing the author of the psalm, they are describing how the Creator made him?
Fearful, in this context, means "reverent," "having awe."
If so, then God made us reverently! With reverence. With awe! As he thought through every detail of our DNA, and planned out each day of our lives, as his hands smoothed out the design for our being, he had reverence and awe. God has reverence and awe for us?
And so I think because those qualities were present in how he made us, they become inherent in us. We are reverently and wonderfully made by a reverent, awe-filled, wonderful Creator.
Mmmmmm.
Never thought about God making "me" with reverence. Something wonderful to ponder today ... for the rest of my life. Thank you, Kendra.
ReplyDeleteLinda,
ReplyDeleteThank you for being brave to post. It encourages me!
Jamie Davis from Lakeland shared some thoughts about this after she read this day, too. It's realllly deep and may well take a lifetime to grasp... From the book, "Seeking the Face of God," by W. Shannon:
"When we think of God and ourselves in the experience of prayer, we have to think quite differently. Thus it would be a misunderstanding to think that when I pray there are two namely, God and I. No, God and I equal not two, but one. For I cannot be separated from God, since God is the Ground in whom alone I find my being, my identity, my uniqueness….It is, therefore, a misunderstanding of the transcendence of God to conceive Him as “there” and creatures as “here.” It is only in the order of logic that we can differentiate the transcendence of God from His immanence. God must not be divided: Once God wills to create, His transcendence necessarily flows into His immanence. The “Wholly Other” (the transcendent One) is inseparable from the “ALL” (the immanent One). It is precisely because God is transcendent, that is to say, not one in a series of beings, that He is immanent, namely, present in all things as the Source whence they come and the Ground in which they continue to be. He is in all and all exist because of Him and in Him."