Fearfully & Wonderfully Made

You are fearfully & wonderfully made.

Psalm 139:14 I will praise You because I have been fearfully and wonderfully made”.

Fearfully when translated from the Hebrew means with great reverence, heart-felt interest, and with respect.

The word “wonderfully” is the Hebrew word “pala”, which means to be separate, distinguished, or unique. Basically it means that God made you to be special.

So rewriting the verse: I will praise You (God) because I have been uniquely & distinctly made with great reverence and deep caring.

In other words, no matter what you have been told, you’re no accident.

There’s only one of you and you are very near and dear to God.

You were known before creation. The hairs on your head are numbered.  God is saying that you are known by Him. Nothing you do, nothing you say, nothing you think, anything that happened/happens to you is a surprise to God. He knew your parents, the day you were born and the day you will die.

Ephesians 1:4 …Long ago, even before He made the world, God chose us to be His very own through what Christ would do for us; He decided then to make us holy in His eyes, without a single fault—we who stand before Him covered with his love.

We are covered in God’s Love.  And what is that love? It is the Gospel.

Sometime we make the Gospel (the Good News) just way to complicated. In reality the Good News that the angles sang about (Hosanna in the Highest) is simply this. God became man (Immanuel), lived a sinless life, died taking the just punishment for our sins upon His sinless self, so we could have the opportunity to reconcile our broken relationship with God which was broken because we have sinned. Jesus rose from His death, returned to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to make us aware of our estrangement from God and encourages us to choose to reconcile with God.  We are offered and encouraged, not coerced.

According to the world love is sensual, it is accepting of all, it is inclusive, but what if a behavior is harmful, what if an idea is wrong? Is it kind and loving to accept it and not try to enlighten and possibly correct it?

True love cares/knows your deepest needs.

Jeremiah 1:5 (KJV) – Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee…

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…(NIV) 

Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you…(AMP)

NOTICE HOW INTIMATE GOD IS WITH EACH OF US.

According to Dictionary.com Intimate:

Adjective:  associated in close personal relations: an intimate friend.

characterized by or involving warm friendship or a personally close or familiar association or feeling: (of an association, knowledge, understanding, etc.) arising from close personal connection or familiar experience.

Noun: an intimate friend or associate, especially a confidant.

Now you know why the Gospel mentions reconciliation so often. God had a relationship with you before creation and well, you’re sinning messed it up.  Remember, you have to have had a relationship to reconcile a relationship and “guess what”, each of us according to these verses at one time had a pretty tight relationship with our Creator.

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:7).

Created in God’s image. What does that look like?

There are many artist depictions of what they perceived Jesus to look like. White Europeans who painted a white European Jesus, Greek Orthodox artists painted icons depicting Jesus that looked like Greek Orthodox Jesus’ and other cultures did the same and what else would we expect? Instead of us being created in God’s image, we want to create God in our image. Now from an artistic point of view, not that big of a deal, but from who God is essentially, a huge mistake.

Imago Dei ("image of God")

("image of God"): A theological term, applied uniquely to humans, which denotes the symbolical relation between God and humanity. The term has its roots in Genesis 1:27, wherein "God created man in his own image. . ." This scriptural passage does not mean that God is in human form, but rather, that humans are in the image of God in their moral, spiritual, and intellectual nature. Thus, humans mirror God's divinity in their ability to actualize the unique qualities with which they have been endowed, and which make them different than all other creatures: rational structure (see logos), complete centeredness, creative freedom, a possibility for self-actualization, and the ability for self-transcendence (divine existence). https://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/theogloss/imago-body.html

Simply put: in our essence, our souls we were created in God’s image. We are not of the nature of God but we are like the nature of God.

Thus we have the ability to realize we exist, we can choose to love, be kind or forgive. But along with being able to choose those things we can also choose not to love, not to be kind and not to forgive. And because of the ability to self-actualize and to choose we have the opportunity to love God or not love God.

Jesus emphasizes through the whole New Testament what God desires of us. He wants us to love Him with our whole heart, with all our strength and with all our might, and then to love others as we love ourselves Matt. 22: 34-36. Can we do that without God’s help? Not hardly, that’s why He sent the Holy Spirit that we might be able to love a little like God loves us.

Our essence is renewed, how we think (renewed mind), our attitudes (mercy and grace) and our desire for Holiness (both in us and in the world around us).  This is the essence of God in us.

I will praise You (God) because I have been uniquely & distinctly made with great reverence and deep caring.

Is everyone uniquely made? Yes, there is no other person exactly like you and there never will be. Are you distinctly made. Synonyms for distinctly: obvious, apparent, plain, visible, distinct, noticeable, identifiable, perceptible, clarity, clearly, conspicuous, distinguishable, evident . . .  Distinctly reflects the idea that your uniqueness is clear to the senses. It can be seen and recognized. God made you distinct and that distinction can and should be noticed.  

You have great value not because of anything you have done or accomplished but because your creator/savior deeply cares for you and passionately loves, respects, admires, and is devoted to you and your eternal wellbeing.

1 John 4:10

And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Blessings