This summer at camp, I was leading an adult bible study at family camp. Family camp is a weekend program where families can come to camp for the weekend and spend time together. On Saturday morning, both the adults and kids have the choice to go to Bible study. Our theme verse at camp was Psalm 139:14, which says, “I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, wonderful are your works that my soul knows very well.”
I spent the whole summer thinking deeply about Psalm 139:14 and thought I already knew so much about it. However, the parents shared that they wrestled with verse 14 because the world had ideas of what “normal” was and their children did not fit into that. It was difficult to get their mind around what being fearfully and wonderfully made truly means.
Perhaps you can relate to also struggling with what it means to be fearfully and wonderfully made. Especially in a world that narrows the definition of who people really are. However, the word of God reminds us of how God created all people in his image.
Another way to understand being fearfully and wonderfully fashioned is to understand it as being set apart and marvelously crafted. Because God has molded us, we can not help but praise God. The message translation says, “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!” Ecclesiastes 11:5 says, “As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.”
God doesn’t put us in boxes or have a definition of what “normal” is. We all are uniquely crafted with our own unique personalities and gifts. Each one was created in the image of God, and in the waters of baptism, we are claimed as God’s beloved children–even those on the fringes of society and those we struggle to see in the image of God. I am thankful that God molded all people so uniquely and different. Life would be boring if we all looked and sounded the same.
In this season of gratefulness, I invite you to take some time to thank God for making everyone in the image of God, including yourself. Take comfort in knowing that God is bigger than the ways the world tries to categorize you.
Wonderfully crafted,
Pastor Nicole