REFLECTIONS

February 28th, 2021

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,

Psalms 139:13-14

Marvelously Made

 People, people, people everywhere—as many as the stars. I am but one insignificant face blended among them.

Many times through the years, these Reflections have referenced Psalm 139:14: I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Eugene Peterson paraphrased the verse in The Message, “…I am marvelously made.” Descriptive terms like splendid, strikingly beautiful, sumptuous in structure and adornment, and impressive in mind or spirit simply don’t connect with the reflection I see in the mirror each day. But God says they do. And Webster uses all those terms to define the word Peterson chose.

If these Reflections have an underlying theme, it’s that our lives matter to God. He has a purpose for them, and He made you and me just as we need to be to fulfill it. He carefully chose our parents, our birthplaces and the days to walk through this world; and He directed the paths through unique circumstances that define each of our lives.

Remember, God pulled an 80-year-old named Moses from a shepherd’s field to lead his people from slavery. He selected Esther to be queen for a time when God’s chosen people faced serious trouble. He picked an ordinary teenage virgin to give birth to his only Son; and God chose a man born blind, “so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” (John 9:3)

No matter the image we see in the mirror, we are marvelously made. Don’t forget, Jesus had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:2-3)

God formed us in our mothers’ wombs. He gave us influence to shape lives around us the same way others shaped ours. And when the responsibility feels too great, God covered that too:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart / and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him, / and he will direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org


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